Ram temple CDs resurface,Nanded tense

An audio-video CD with communally inflammatory visuals and songs about rebuilding Ram temple in Ayodhya has mysteriously reappeared in Maharashtra.

An audio-video CD with communally inflammatory visuals and songs about rebuilding the Ram temple in Ayodhya has mysteriously reappeared in Maharashtra weeks before the Lok Sabha polls,triggering minor rioting in Nanded and baffling police who have been trying to trace its source and distributors for nearly two years now.

The CD,titled Banayenge Mandir,has 10 songs,most of them Hindi devotional numbers set to popular Bollywood tunes and sung by unknown artistes with visuals of Hindu deities and rituals in the background. Among them are two songs thrown in innocuously: Chalo tikat kata lo Ayodhya ki Go buy a ticket to Ayodhya and Chalo khole mandir ka taala Lets unlock the gates of the temple. They are sung by two men with visuals showing the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya,kar sewaks gathered there and snatches of the campaign that led to the destruction of the mosque.

Last Friday,the songs were played on loudspeakers just as a procession of Shiv Sena workers marking Shiv Jayanti,the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji,passed the gates of the Masjid-e-Abadee in the Nayi Abadee area of Nanded town. Those in the procession followed it by shouting slogans,calling on Muslims to go to their homeland in Pakistan. Tension built up within minutes and led to stone-throwing between the two sides,forcing police to impose curfew,witnesses said.

A CD labelled Banayenge Mandir was seized by the police. Although it is not produced in Nanded,police suspect a large number of CDs have already been circulated in the city days before the procession, said Nanded Collector Shrikar Pardhesi. About seven times during the procession the police had to stop the activists for playing the songs. Thirty-eight people were arrested for rioting but none for playing or distributing the CD,which has the logo of Ambe Series on screen.

The last time the CD was played in public,during the fasting month of Ramzan in Dhule in north Maharashtra in October,it inflamed communal passions and stoked riots in which 10 people were killed. Sporadic rioting continued in Dhule,Thene,Shirud and Yavatmal in the region during October and November. It was also played on at least two other occasions which triggered communal riots in Maharashtra last year.

Muslim groups say that the CD is played deliberately to fuel communal fires and some have even demanded it be banned. Superintendents of police say they have seized three or four copies of the CD in their districts in the last two years but have not managed to shut its supply. Previous Maharashtra Police chief A N Roy had said in the aftermath of the Dhule riots that he feared the CD could be used in areas with a history of communal tension in the run-up to elections. This CD is openly available in the market, said Nanded SP Satyanarayan Chaudhary. We are going to send a report to the Home Department to take the necessary decision on this CD.

inputs from Sukanya Shetty