Godhra ghost doesn’t haunt Ram sevaks

The Godhra station is more porous than it was on February 27, 2002, the boundary wall has been brought down at many places. The Railways considers the station unprofitable, so plans for fortification are yet to take shape 20 months after the incident. Muslim vendors are no more around, some are behind bars, some on the run.

The February 27 attack and the riots that followed did not reflect in the way the first batch of VHP and BD volunteers left the state. One of the pro-mandir leaftlets they carried had mugs of the train victims. Fear seemed to be the last thing on their mind when Ram sevaks, including quite a few women, began in Ahmedabad. ‘‘I saw how they attacked the train. But even my relatives did not mind my journey again,’’ said Kamlesh Vasava, a youth from Moti Bhambri in Rajpipla, on his third trip to Ayodhya.

The kar sevaks are not anonymous any more. Badges pinned to their clothes give personal details. Main accused in the Naroda Patia massacre Babu Bajrangi and VHP leader Jaideep Patel were present only to see them off.

Every coach had three to four volunteers carrying mobile, and an videographer to shoot unpleasant events. Two Ram sevaks each were entrusted with closing the coach doors. They opened them to let in more volunteers and to stock eatables that arrived at every station.

‘‘Don’t get into confrontation with police and passengers,’’ was what sevaks were told repeatedly. But few bothered for niceties when they did not find a place. A couple of requests were followed by threats. Like the Godhra station, the S-6 coach also has symbolism attached to it. Ram sevaks were keen on getting photographed with the S-6 coach in the background. ‘‘Kasam Ram ki khate hai, mandir wahi banayenge,’’ they reiterated.

For some strange reasons, the policemen decided to concentrate only on the S-6 coach, most of the security personnel decided to station themselves there rather than everywhere.