Ever since the voters of Ayodhya silenced the trumpet played by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) throughout the recently held Lok Sabha elections gloating over the construction of the grand Ram temple, the consecration of Ram Lalla, the ‘unprecedented’ development nurturing various Hindutva identities and the ‘return of Treta’ through it, there has been a surge of bad news for the party from the constituency which even its ‘well-wisher’ media is unable to brush aside. As a result, all the attempts to review the defeat and carry out damage control measures have gone in vain.
Without doubt, the anger of shop owners and businessmen who were displaced owing to the demolition of their shops and establishments for the construction and widening of Ram Path, Janmabhoomi Path and Bhakti Path leading to Ram Mandir, and who were facing a livelihood crisis due to lack of proper rehabilitation and adequate compensation, is being cited as a major reason for the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. When the Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh suddenly woke up from its slumber after the election results and started tending to them, it was seen as its most positive step towards damage control.
Also read: Abusing Ayodhya’s Voters is Like a Slur on Voting Rights, Constitution: Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad
In this regard, the local administration first took the initiative to show that all the people affected by the demolition drive have been given proper compensation without any discrimination. Next, the Development Authority announced a 30% discount on the price of the shops constructed for the rehabilitation of the displaced businessmen, which the businessmen had earlier claimed was beyond their financial capacity. The authority also announced that the remaining 70% price can be paid in interest-free instalments over 20 years. The government claimed that these announcements could not be made earlier due to the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct.
People attending Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22, 2023. Photo: X (Twitter)/BJP4India.
But before the positive message could be broadcast, the outrageous message that came out of the BJP’s review meeting at a local guest house after the debacle in the presence of the party’s state president Bhupendra Chaudhary, two ministers of the state government – Suryapratap Shahi and Jaiveer Singh – several MLAs, other public representatives and officials, overshadowed it. First, the news came that the angry party workers not only lost their temper at the review meeting but even showed the mirror to the reviewers. Soon after, Mahant Raju Das of Hanumangarhi, who calls himself ‘Hindutva ka Khudai Khidmatgar’ (Hindutva’s servant of God), drew all the attention towards himself by opening a front against district magistrate Nitish Kumar.
Reportedly, when Raju Das started blaming the party’s defeat on the repeated restrictions imposed in Ayodhya without any reason, harassment of BJP workers and arbitrariness displayed by the district officials having a ‘Samajwadi Party mentality’, he got into an argument with the district magistrate present there. The dispute escalated so much that district magistrate Nitish Kumar refused to even sit alongside him.
Raju Das is generally known for his inflammatory speeches. Last year, in a dispute with the then Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya, he had even announced a reward of Rs 21 lakh to anyone who would behead or shoot him. After the BJP lost the Faizabad seat in the Lok Sabha elections, he started making derogatory comments about all the people of Ayodhya. He also said that this is what will happen when BJP workers are beaten up even in the police station and their cases are not heard. He also warned that it was just a trailer and that what happens in 2027, that is, during the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, remains to be seen.
Also read: Those Blaming People of Ayodhya for Election Result Showing ‘Foolishness’: Ram Mandir Chief Priest
The district magistrate has now withdrawn his government security citing his criminal history, saying that he abuses the people of Ayodhya and the administration – publicly and individually. Once Raju Das had three gunmen, two of whom were removed after the Lok Sabha elections and the last one was removed after the row with the district magistrate. He has expressed a threat to his life after his security was withdrawn.
On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party has also jumped into this controversy, as SP leaders are claiming that the “honest and impartial District Magistrate of Ayodhya, Nitish Kumar, who has a clean image” is being targeted by the anarchist elements of the BJP because he belongs to a backward caste and that its PDA i.e. Pichhda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak voters and half the population will answer for it.
But Raju Das is not the only Hindutva saint who has put the BJP in trouble.
Many newspapers have quoted a priest of Ramlala in the under-construction Ram Mandir that the condition of the ‘grandeur’ of the Ram Mandir being built at the expense of thousands of crores of rupees is so poor that there is no arrangement for the drainage of water spilt during Ramlala’s daily bath and anointment routine in its sanctum sanctorum. It is creating a significant problem.
The priest has claimed (on the condition of anonymity as per news reports) that before being decked up daily, the Ramlala idol is first bathed with madhuperk (which contains milk, curd, ghee and honey) and then with the water of Saryu. Since there is no arrangement for drainage of water from the sanctum sanctorum, the water is collected in a platter to prevent spillage on the floor and poured on the plants. Despite all care, water does get spilt and has to be tediously wiped and dried.
The priest expressed surprise that despite the involvement of skilled engineers in the construction of the temple, flawless construction of the sanctum sanctorum could not be ensured. It could have been avoided had these engineers studied the needs of the sanctum sanctorum of other temples, he claimed. In fact, they even failed to make arrangements to ensure proper air-conditioning of the sanctum sanctorum in the scorching summer heat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes part in the consecration ceremony of the Ayodhya Ram Temple. Photo: Screenshot from DD News broadcast.
The magnitude of this problem can be understood from the fact that for any new arrangement in the sanctum sanctorum, the stones used in its construction will have to be smashed. It will ruin the carvings on them and poorly affect the grandeur of the sanctum sanctorum. Moreover, according to experts, one stone has been joined to another in the temple in such a way that any tampering with them is not technically easy.
But according to a report published in Dainik Jagran, Anil Kumar Mishra, trustee of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust, has denied any such problem and has said that the trust considers the leftover water from Ramlala’s madhuperk bath in the sanctum sanctorum as charanamrit and is preserving it. According to him, plantation and water conservation are being carried out in the temple premises simultaneously.
However, this matter remains a cause of concern for the BJP and the Trust, which claim credit for the construction of the temple.
This is not all. The ambitious air services started from the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, which was built by acquiring land from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia University and inaugurated with great pomp before the consecration of Ram Lalla, are being shut down one after the other. Since there is a shortage of passengers for them, it is a clear indication of the decreasing number of devotees visiting Ayodhya. However, the government continues to deny it.
Notably, from February 1, SpiceJet started flights from here to Chennai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Patna and Darbhanga and on April 2, it added Hyderabad to the list. But now it is operating air services only to Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The remaining services have been shut down due to a dearth of passengers.
The first flights to shut down were Patna and Darbhanga. The Dehradun flight service barely lasted for a week. As far as passengers are concerned, their number had reduced to half in May as compared to January, due to which many daily flights were switched to weekly flights. The airport officials had claimed at the time that the airlines were doing this due to personal reasons. But the shortage of passengers has become obvious now.
Finally, Acharya Pramodkrishnam, the Peethadheeshwar of Kalki Dham in Sambhal, who had taken refuge in the BJP after being expelled from the Congress for six years in February, came to Ayodhya on 20 June to attend the Sant Sammelan organised on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahant Nritya Gopaldas, the president of the Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust. The Acharya said, “The victory or defeat of any party is not the victory or defeat of Ayodhya. Ayodhya has never lost, nor will it ever lose. If it loses, Sanatan will lose and Sanatan can never lose.”
But what he said earlier in an interview to India TV got more attention in Ayodhya that the BJP got 240 seats in the Lok Sabha elections because it chanted the name of Ram, otherwise anything could have happened. He also claimed that Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister only because of Lord Ram.
If one asks local BJP members to comment on it, most of them do not understand how to react.
Originally published in Hindi, this article has been translated by Naushin Rehman. Read the Hindi version here.
