By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
TwoCircles.net series: Ayodhya 2009
Many would be surprised but it is a fact that the issue on which they communalized minds and polarized Hindu votes and came to power, has now few takers. The city, which sent shockwaves across the country when Babri Masjid was demolished by karsevaks on 6th December 1992, now hates them.
Photos: groups.yahoo.com]
Today there are few takers of Ram Mandir issue in Ayodhya whose overwhelming Hindu majority hates Hindutva outfits of Sangh Parivar and their leaders. Hindus living in the vicinity of the makeshift Ram Temple in Hanuman Garhi, Ayodhya outright reject the ideology of Hindutva. They say what happened in 1992 was the work of outsiders brought in by RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal. Locals had nothing to do with them then. They have no interest in them now as well.
“Common Hindus here have never had any interest in Sangh Parivar, neither before the demolition of Babri Masjid, nor now. They do not take interest in programs held by outfits of Sangh Parivar,” Jugal Kishore Shastri, ex-RSS pracharak and resident of Hanuman Garhi, tells TwoCircles.net.
“If Sangh Parivar tries to repeat the incident of 6th December today in Ayodhya, there will be a division and revolt within the Hindu society. Majority of Hindus, which comprises OBCs and other backward classes, will forcefully oppose it,” says Shastri who is also an eyewitness of the demolition of Babri Masjid. People have become aware now. Such awareness was not in 1992. Now Sangh Parivar feels isolated from the mainstream Hindu society. People say they are anti human and antinational, adds Shastri who has worked for communal harmony here and have held several programs to make masses aware of the design and plan of Sangh Parivar.
Dr Samrat Ashok Maurya, resident of Hanuman Garhi, says there are few buyers of the ideology of Hindutva organizations. “They are flop here. It is difficult for them to gather even 100 locals in their programs. If they do not bring people from outside and do not pollute the minds of rural people, their programs are completely flop,” Dr Samrat Ashok tells TCN.
“People living outside Ayodhya have misunderstandings about Ayodhya residents. They think local Hindus will be votary to Hindutva or extremist Hindu ideology. This is completely wrong and baseless,” says Dr Samrat emphatically.
“The peaceful situation here is disturbed by antisocial elements who come from outside for mere politics. The same thing happened in 1992. Then too locals had not changed their mind. They were all the way secular. Locals are not communal. They have never involved in communal riots. They are sponsored by VHP and BJP and executed by antisocial elements that come from outside,” he says.
Ram Narayan Maurya, another Ayodhya resident, echoes general feeling of Hindus. “Local people have no interest in RSS, VHP or Bajrang Dal. People want to live with peace. They do not want to have any business with these organizations.” “When leaders like Togadia or Singhal come here people pay little attention to them because they know they are doing just politics, and their presence here creates trouble for common people as heavy security arrangements are made for them, which ultimately hamper businesses of local people,” says Ram Narayan.
Common Hindus say the Ram Temple issue raised by Sangh Parivar was just politics and to get power. Construction of Ram Temple was never in their plan.
“Construction of Mandir had never been the main purpose of the Ram Temple movement. The main purpose was to unite the Hindu society and capture the power. Construction of Mandir and install their own pujari was never the aim,” says Jugal Kishore Shastri.
“It is a principle of Sangh Parivar that Hindu society must be united even at the cost of killing of humanity. Though it says it is a cultural organization, RSS has indirectly been attached to politics. Earlier it guided Jan Sangh and now BJP,” he says. Sometimes they give impression that there is rift between RSS and BJP but it is just to befool public. Their main purpose is to set a Hindu Rashtra. For that purpose they have created BJP. And in Hindu Rashtra there will be no democracy but monarchy because in Hindu ideology and religious books we find only monarchs and emperors, he adds.
Shastri left Sangh Parivar in 1986 and with him hundreds of people from Backward classes also left it. He was Ayodhya secretary of VHP. He took the decision when he realized that if Sangh Parivar got full power they will impose Manusmirti – the constitution of caste system. “After spending a few years I found that Sangh hates OBCs, Dalits and backward classes. I come from that class. I came to know that Manusmirti is their first constitution. It means they want to please just 20% of population. I came to the conclusion that if they came to power they will impose Manusmirti and I and our class and OBCs and Dalits will be pushed to ancient time,” he says.
Ram Narayan Maurya says: “These Sangh organizations are doing politics over Ram and people do not have interest in them. People are not listening to them.”
As people thinking on this line are in majority in Ayodhya, there is complete communal harmony here. Both communities take part in each other’s social and cultural programs. There is no communal feeling.
“Common Hindus consider Sangh Parivar, not Muslims, their enemy. But the creamy class of Hindu society that comprises Brahmins and landed people still have affiliation with Sangh because they eye political and economic benefits that this affiliation could give them. But they are just 25%. The rest 70% Hindus think otherwise. They see Sangh as their enemy. In Ayodhya Muslims and common Hindus have good relations, and there is no communal feeling between them. They take part in each other’s social and cultural programs,” says Jugal Kishore Shastri.
“Hindus want peace and there is peace in Ayodhya. Muslims also want peace and both the communities are living peacefully here. There is complete communal harmony here,” says Ram Narayan Maurya. Maurya likes communal harmony programs organized at regular interval by some NGOs. To attend such programs he sometimes shuts down his shop.
Dr Samrat Ashok Maurya says there is complete communal harmony here in Ayodhya. “Members of the two communities are so closely living and interacting with each other that one cannot identify who is Hindu and who is Muslim. Hindus and Muslims take part in each others’ social and cultural activities,” he says. Dr Maurya seems to have got communal harmony and secularism in his blood. His father was breastfed by a Muslim woman for one and half years when he was just one and his mother died.