Agency. In 2022, three roads were being built to reach Ayodhya in India: Rampath, Bhaktipath and Janmabhoomipath. The central government had a special interest in widening these roads.
Hundreds of shops on the left and right sides of the road were torn down and made smaller. Many people were running small shops in these shops for many years. The income from that shop seemed to support the lives of those people.
They were worried because of the wide road that the government is building to reach Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The more the road expansion progressed, the more worried the shopkeepers on the three roadsides leading to Ayodhya were about their insecure future.
Currently, all the three roads leading to Ram Mandir have been prepared. The market of Ayodhya is decorated to welcome the devotees. Small shops that were vandalized to widen the road have also been repaired.
The shopkeepers who were worried about the road connecting Ayodhya and Ram Mandir in 2022, are now more disappointed. Because most of the shops have become roads and only a few shops are left for business.
Gas and hardware businessman Abhishek Kumar Kasera is one of the three victims, whose shop was largely demolished to make way for the road. Right now, he is happy that the Ram Mandir has been built. However, he is sad that the government has demolished the shop and made it smaller. While working in this shop, his father died during the corona virus. He has taken care of the shop, but he is not in a position to keep a lot of goods and do business openly like before.
Abhishek says, ‘This shop was everything to my father. Even if he were alive right now, he would have died after seeing the condition of the shop.
However, due to fanatical politics, they cannot oppose the anointed ruler. Because there is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the center and state that is doing politics of hatred against other minority communities by making Vedic Hindu religion Vaishakhi. Opposing the work of the government is a matter of conscience for both Hindus and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh.
To avoid this appeasement, Abhishek told BBC Hindi, “But…we are very happy during Yogi’s tenure.”
Tears of Kamaladevi that Modi did not see
Last year, the shop of Kamaladevi and her family was being demolished in Rampath. At that time she was very dissatisfied with the government.
She said, “I don’t need compensation for the destroyed shop, I would have given a shop in exchange for the shop.” Where will our family go now? One lakh rupees have been given to build a new house and set up a shop, even one beam cannot be made with it.
At that time, she was telling them that they did not want the compensation offered by the government, they wanted the shop. However, the bigoted ruler of India did not want to listen to people like him. Kamala’s shop has become very small. Due to the dispute over the ownership of the house where the shop is located, she has not even been able to repair it. She received one lakh rupees from the administration, but it did nothing to remove her worries.
Kamala says, ‘We are still very sad. When there is no place to live, there is no option left to join hands, in such a situation, I have no other option but to live or die.’
Kamaladevi said, “The happiness that the Ram temple has been built has spread to Ayodhya!”, “We are all happy that the temple has been built.” But Ram did not ask Modi or Yogi to make the people homeless when he came, Lord Ram wanted to see the happiness of the people.
Not the goods in the shop, but the dispute is filling up
The shopkeepers of the Rampath leading to the Ram Mandir seem to be suffering from the widening of the road. Haunted in the sense that to chase them away from there Modi and Aditya Yogi led government has caused many controversies in a planned way to remove the shops.
For many years, many Pindhis have been running shops in Rampath. The owners of the building where the shop is located are now arguing with the King of Ayodhya.
The Ayodhya district administration claims that despite the ongoing dispute between the shopkeepers and the house owners, the shopkeepers have not been removed and there has been no impact on the livelihood of the people. The administration also says that they are negotiating with the King of Ayodhya and are negotiating between the shopkeepers and the house owners, but no solution has been found.
Even now, there are still shops in the ruined buildings. The administration tried to repair these shops, but the work could not be done due to disputes between the shop owners and the house owners. Along with the construction of Ram temple, the Indian government is also working to make Ayodhya a center of religious tourism since 2022.
Under this, about 13 km long Rampath, 800 meters long Bhaktipath and 800 meters long Janmabhoomipath have been widened.
In order to widen the road leading to Ram Temple, part of the hundreds of shops there were merged into the road. Some shops were completely removed. According to the business leaders of Ayodhya, the livelihood of at least 4,700 shopkeeper families has been lost due to the construction of three roads.
The business leadership is demanding to repair and operate the remaining shops and to give suitable compensation for rehabilitation, to distribute shops built by the government to the displaced shops.
A scam is a scam
Meanwhile, it is estimated that billions of rupees have been scammed to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya. However, due to the religious fundamentalist government, the regulatory agencies have not been able to investigate such scams.
In June 2021, a shameful scam rocked India. In 10 minutes after purchasing additional land needed to build the Ram temple, the news of a scam of 165 million baht was published.
The allegation was made by Samajwadi Party leader and former MLA Tejnarayan Yadav. The land price of 20 million Indian rupees was sold within 10 minutes to 195 million rupees
He alleged that he had delivered it.
However, the secretary of Ram Janmabhoomi Triot, Champat Rai, said that the allegation was false and politically motivated and claimed that the land purchased by Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust was much cheaper than the open market price. After his claim of being protected by the BJP, no concrete investigation and action could be taken on the allegations in the land purchase scam.
BJP’s political bowl
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made Ayodhya a political bowl for seeking votes. Tarantar has been involved in the Ayodhya dispute since its inception.
It was the BJP that united the Hindus by saying that the Hindu god Ram was born on the site of the medieval Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and that the mosque should be removed from that place. The Babri Masjid was built by the Mughal ruler Babur in the sixteenth century.
The Hindu side of India alleges that the mosque was built by Babur after demolishing the Ram Mandir. Religious riots have erupted many times in India due to the same dispute. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of the present ruling BJP, used to instigate such riots since Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Modi had repeatedly said during the election that he would build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The Hindu side has not been able to provide a reliable archaeological and historical basis to confirm the allegation that the Hindu temple was destroyed when the Babri Masjid was built. The authenticity of Ram’s birthplace has been disputed after a Ramayana-era structure was found at Thori in Parsa, Nepal.
While studying Balmiki’s Ramayana, existing geographical location and folklore, the opinion that Ram Janmabhoomi Ayodhya is not in India but in Thori located in Parsa, Nepal is becoming stronger. However, due to the recent Prime Minister of Nepal not wanting to have a confrontation with India in this matter, the Ram temple built in Ayodhya is currently in widespread discussion.
(This content has been prepared by translating BBC Hindi and resources available on the internet.)
