Ayodhya’s holy men gun for Kalyan Singh

Since the Chief Minister has made himself scarce, the disgruntled sadhus have decided to bar his entry into the twin cities of Faizabad and Ayodhya and also warned him that he would be excommunicated from the Hindu community if no action was taken on their demand. They alleged that the Chief Minister was shielding former Faizabad party Member of Parliament Vinay Katiyar whose henchmen, according to them, have forcibly grabbed keys of the Laxman Quila temple in Ayodhya and ousted the Mahant, Maithili Sharancharya, despite the factthat he had court orders favouring him and all records mentioned him as the “real mahant”.

“The Chief Minister had assured us that he had directed the Superintendent of Police Faizabad to get the ousted Mahant ensconced in his seat, but in reality he had done nothing and criminal elements are in command of the temple,” said Prahalad Sharan, a mahant of Badi Chavani. The temple was built by Maharaj Raghuraj Singh of Rewa in 1821 and is considered to be sacred.

The controversy over the shrine began after the present Mahant’s guru expired in March 1997 and Maithili Sharanacharya was nominated as his successor by the seven-member Trust which looks after the property and income of the temple. But the late Mahant’s driver, Sanjay Jha, who the sadhus alleged enjoyed the political patronage of Katiyar, claimed that the post should be given to him and that he was the real successor of the late Mahant.

“The Trust, however, refused this illogical demand, forcing him to approach his political mentor VinayKatiyar. In January, Jha and a number of armed miscreants barged into the temple and roughed up the priest, Ram Sagar Sharma,” claimed the deposed Mahant. Katiyar, who lives in Faizabad, could not be contacted.

The deposed mahant claimed, “Last year I was also attacked with a crude bomb by Katiyar and his henchmen and finally they assumed command of the temple by forcibly taking its keys,”he claimed. The sadhus are now threatening to call the Dharam Sansad, the highest assembly of sadhus, and “ostracise” the Chief Minister if he remained incommunicado on the issue. This for the second time that the Chief Minister is facing a challenge from the sadhus. In January, a group of sadhus, led by Baba Dharam Das, main priest of the Ramjanmabhoomi Temple, had staged a similar show in the state capital and Kalyan Singh had to virtually fall at their feet to pacify them. But this time the CM is unrelenting even as the agitation is gaining momentum.