Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh): On January 5, 2023, when Union home minister Amit Shah announced that the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will be inaugurated on January 1, 2024, the traders of the city, particularly those who work in the environs of the temple, realised that they have less than a year to protect their livelihoods and their homes.
The temple is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crores. But it has a hidden cost too, which is being borne by a number of traders in the city. As part of the road expansion project around the temple complex, several key trade routes, including the 13 km long Ram Path (Sahadatganj to Nayaghat), the 800 metres-long Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Path (Sugriv Quila Marg to Ram Janmabhoomi), and the 800 metres-long Bhakti Path (Shringar Haat to Ram Janmabhoomi), are being widened. This means that the shops of many merchants are being demolished, leaving them without a livelihood.
Somewhat ironically, many of these traders are strong supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, since its foundation as a political party in the 1980s, has been determined to construct a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, specifically on the site of the Babri Masjid.
The issue divided the nation until 2019, when the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the construction of the temple. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP laid the foundation stone of the temple on August 5, 2020, the occasion was one of great joy for many people in Ayodhya, including the city’s traders. But now these same traders feel a deep sense of disappointment and injustice.
Struggling to survive
“It is easy for Amit Shah to talk about inaugurating the temple on the first day of next year, but what about the livelihoods of the traders in Ram Nagri (Ayodhya, the city of Ram)?” said a trader who used to sell articles of worship in Ayodhya. “Do they even care about the impact that the construction has had on our community?”
Brij Kishore Pandey, a trader who sells articles of worship, lamented the loss of his business and home. “Our business is related to God, but it has been taken away,” he said. “I am the third generation of my family to live here, supporting Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and Yogiji (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath), but I had never thought that the bulldozer would arrive at my house. It has now been two months since my shop was demolished.”
When his shop crashed to the ground, Brij Kishore, like all the other traders on his street, was given Rs 1 lakh by the state government as compensation. But that, he feels, is not enough. Torn between his beliefs and his feeling of injustice, he emphasised that his family has had a longstanding association with the Ram Mandir. They had always supported and helped the Karsevaks (activists involved in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement) when they came to Ayodhya to participate in the movement. This is why he had no doubt that, should Yogi Adityanath just hear the traders out, their issues will be resolved.
In the meantime, however, many traders have been left with limited space for their work, leaving them unable to take care of their families and make ends meet. Some are also struggling to pay back loans they took for their businesses. Brij Kishore himself, for example, has a family of five to feed, clothe and shelter and had taken a loan under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana four years ago. He had invested that money in his shop, but now has no way of returning it to the bank since he no longer has a source of income.
On November 27, 2022, during a speech he made in Ayodhya, the chief minister had assured the traders that their problems would be resolved. But so far, there has been no word from the state government on how the issue will be dealt with. Given this silence, the people on the ground are uncertain of what the future will hold for them.
Tej Narain Pandey, also known as Pawan Pandey, a former Samajwadi Party member of the legislative assembly from the Ayodhya seat, believes that the road expansion and subsequent displacement of traders is part of a larger plan by the BJP to settle Gujaratis in Ayodhya.
“It is their master plan,” Pawan Pandey insisted. “There are [Gujarati] people working here and getting contracts, but I don’t want to mention any names. The work of any government is to make people feel secure, but here in Ayodhya, everyone is afraid of the government.”
Laxmikant Tiwari’s shop.
Laxmikant Tiwari, who used to sell religious books at Ram Path, now sells tobacco to make ends meet. His shop, which once was 20 feet by 10 feet in its dimensions, is now just 10 feet by 10 feet because half of it was demolished in the road widening process.
“Earlier, I earned Rs 1,000-1,500 per day, but now it’s hard to make even the first sale. If the government won’t help us, we will have no choice but to start begging,” he told The Wire.
Further financial woes
To add to the worries of the traders, rents in the city have risen exponentially, especially in the areas surrounding the Ram Mandir.
This is not a new phenomenon. In 2007, ‘Raja’ Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra, one of the biggest landlords in the city, raised rents to Rs 300 per month at a time when most of his tenants were paying anything between Rs 110 and Rs 157 per month. The rise in rent instigated some of the traders to take the issue to court and these people now pay their rents to the court rather than to the landlord.
But what changed in 2022 was the length of the lease agreements. Until this time, the lease agreements were for five years. Now they are for 11 months, leaving the traders feeling extremely insecure about their future.
“My family has been paying rent for this property for nearly 70 years, with agreements previously made for five-year terms and a 25% increase after each term,” said Laxmikant Tiwari. “My grandfather used to pay rent of Rs 20 per month. Now my landlord, the ‘Raja’ of Ayodhya, is demanding Rs 2,000 rupees per month for a fraction of the space we used to have and an agreement lasting just 11 months. I fear I will be asked to vacate after such a short agreement.”
According to Yogesh Mishra, the owner of a printing shop, ‘Raja’ Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra now wants the traders to withdraw their case from court and start fresh agreements with him for half of the land at the rate of 2,000 per month. The traders consider this unjust.
Laxmikant Tiwari’s receipt from 1991.
Nand Kumar Gupta, leader of the traders’ union, believes that the rise in rent and the short-term leases are signs of a conspiracy between the Yogi government, the mahants of the Ram Mandir, and ‘Raja’ Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra, a trustee of the mandir, to force traders out of Ayodhya.
“The mere sight of a bulldozer fills us with dread,” he told The Wire. “We’ve been living here for generations and paying rent accordingly. Now the construction of the temple means they can earn huge amounts of money from new people.”
Yogesh’s shop.
Yogesh Mishra blames ‘Raja’ Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra for the destruction of his property.
“I lost 10 feet of my shop, and when I started rebuilding remaining area, which I had permission for from government officials, a first information report (FIR) was lodged against me and 15 other traders on December 14, 2022 by ‘Raja’ Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra’s close aide, Kailash Nath Mishra,” Yogesh Mishra alleged.
Charging the traders with offences under sections 447, 504, 352, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, most of which deal with trespassing and some with abuse, the FIR accused them of violating an agreement that they had made with the landlord that they would only begin construction work after making another agreement with the landlord. It went on to say that when the traders began construction without referring to the landlord and were asked to stop, they responded with expletives.
“I was even forced to take my 76-year-old father (Rajnandra Mishra) to the police station for questioning since the agreement is by his name,” Mishra said.
All the traders named in the FIR claim that they had not signed any agreement with the landlord regarding construction on the properties they rent from him.
When The Wire contacted ‘Raja’ Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra with questions on this issue, he refused to speak about it. The Wire also attempted to speak with Ved Prakash Gupta, the BJP MLA from Ayodhya for a comment on the situation, but has not yet received a response.
Note: This article was updated at 3:00 pm on Jan 19, 2024 with the corrected estimated cost of the temple at Rs 1,800 crores.
