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Godhra killings have fuelled our resolve: Togadia

The gruesome attack on train passengers in Gujarat on Wednesday has, ironically, come as a shot in the arm for the Ram temple movement in Ayodhya.

"The brutal killings have given us fuel to strengthen our resolve to build the Ram temple, which is the symbol of prestige of the entire Hindu community," Praveen Togadia, international secretary general of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, told rediff.com on Thursday.

Minutes after the conclusion of the day's purna-ahuti yagya, which is a prelude to the start of temple construction on March 15, Togadia said, "Hindu devotees have displayed their resentment against the restrictions imposed in Ayodhya by turning up in larger numbers today."

The arrival of a batch of 3,500 devotees from Gujarat and others from Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Bihar corroborated his statement.

Not all of them sat down at the fire ritual, where one could see a large floating population. But the sprawling temporary tented township called Ramsewakpuram created to house the devotees displayed the passionate involvement of people coming from different corners of the country.

The scene seemed to be fast building up towards what was witnessed in 1990, when bands of saffron-clad sadhus dotted the streets of the town and cries of 'Jai Shree Ram' reverberated from the temples and ashrams here.

Smartly turned out Central Reserve Police Force personnel wielding semi-automatic weapons can be seen at every nook and corner of the small town, bringing back memories of October 30 and November 2, 1990, when police firing on a defiant mob of karsevaks had left 18 dead, sparking communal clashes elsewhere.

A similar showdown cannot be ruled out now. Most commercial establishments kept their shutters down in response to the VHP's call for a bandh (general strike) in the twin cities of Faizabad and Ayodhya. But schools, colleges and government offices worked as usual. The VHP has, meanwhile, called for a nationwide bandh on Friday.

"We have assigned different tasks to our volunteers coming from different corners of the country," said Sharad Sharma, a spokesman of the Ram Temple Trust, which claims to shoulder the responsibility of accomplishing the VHP's goal of building the controversial temple.

"I arrived today with my batch of 1500 devotees from Surendranagar in Gujarat," Kirit Patel told rediff.com

"Though I was drawn here because of the yagya (fire ritual), I propose to stay on at least until March 15, when we will march to the temple site with the carved stone columns as our first step towards commencement of the construction."

Guran Rai from Madhubani in Bihar, Sadhuji from Delhi and Vishwanath Garkhade from Jalna in Maharashtra, who were all proudly sporting their identification badges, echoed a similar resolve.

Palku Jena from Orissa, who reached the camp on Thursday afternoon with a band of 350 devotees, was one of the rare ones who said "we will go back after attending the yagya tomorrow".

Vijay Khapde from Jalgaon in Maharashtra also said he and his band would go back in two days, but "we are ready to return here as and when the VHP gives a call for construction of the temple".

Meanwhile, a contingent of sculptors from Rajasthan was busy giving final touches to large blocks of the pink stone selected and specially carted all the way from that very state. Proudly showing the finished columns stacked in the larger part of the workshop, supervisor Nagendra Upadhyaya said, "More than half the preliminary task for the temple is already complete."

According to him, "Each of the columns required for the ground floor part of the proposed two-storeyed building are fully finished and waiting to be carried to the site."

But whether the VHP will be able to fulfil its promise of making a beginning on March 15 remains a million-dollar question.

Togadia maintained, "Nothing can stop us from going ahead with our plans to march in a procession together with the carved columns exactly 15 days from now." He was confident of the participation of 50,000 to 100,000 devotees on that day. "Let the government do whatever it wants to stop people from converging here; we will still have at least 50,000 to 100,000 people here 24 hours before our deadline," he said.

But the local administration and the Uttar Pradesh government are equally firm on not allowing any march on March 15. "Since prohibitory orders under section 144 are in force, we will be left with no choice but to arrest those who attempt to defy the law," Faizabad Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar Gupta, who is also the official custodian of the 71 acres of heavily barricaded land, said.

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