Ayodhya gates shut, Sena men held

The Shiv Sena said in a statement here that it had taken prior permission and booked the Ram Katha Park on the banks of Saryu for today’s programme but the administration clamped Section 144. Sena Delhi unit chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal said the arrests were unconstitutional, particularly in light of the ASI’s report that a temple existed at the Babri site. RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said the kar sevaks were only ‘‘protesting in a democratic manner’’ and the arrests were not called for.

The VHP threatened to launch an indefinite ‘‘Ayodhya Chalo Andolan’’ from October 18 if the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments prevented its ‘‘peaceful and democratic’’ programme at the temple town.

VHP vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore said they had lost faith in the BJP-led government which was on one hand ‘‘trying to negotiate with terrorists and on the other, curbing the democratic rights of ‘desh premis’ who just wanted to pay darshan’’ at Ram’s birthplace.

Former UP CM Kalyan Singh, also one of the accused in the demolition case, claimed the VHP programme would be a ‘‘great’’ failure. ‘‘People have rejected the VHP appeal which is holding this programme merely to derive political mileage for the BJP in view of the polls,’’ the RKP leader said.

On whether Faizabad authorities would ban the VHP programme like that of the Shiv Sena, the expelled BJP leader said district authorities would make such a decision. ‘‘However, I think there is no need to ban their programme as it would be a super failure,’’ he said.

A report from Aurangabad said the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS), the Shiv Sena’s student wing, burnt UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s effigy to protest against the detention of Sena MPs Chandrakant Khaire and Shivaji Rao Mane late last night near Ayodhya.

Sources said paramilitary forces were fanning out around Ayodhya in view of the VHP’s October 17 campaign. Central forces would mainly guard the ‘‘blue zone’’ districts of Barabanki, Sultanpur, Gonda, Basti, Bahraich and Gorakhpur, which surround Faizabad.

Ayodhya Commissioner J.P. Sharma has requested the railway board to divert all trains passing through Ayodhya and Faizabad till October 17. He said only the Faizabad depot buses will be allowed to ply through the twin towns to monitor the rush of VHP activists.

VHP working president Ashok Singhal denied any changes in the organisation’s October 17 Ayodhya march programme, in the wake of the recent crackdown on Ram bhakts.