Seat of God to town of ‘traitors’

Pic/Getty Images

If Ayodhya was showered with love and admiration in the months since the opening of the Ram temple, it is now drowning in vitriol directed at it on social media by dismayed Right-wingers after the electoral drubbing the BJP faced not only in Ayodhya region but also in Faizabad, the Lok Sabha constituency that is home to the temple.

Right-wingers have labelled Ayodhya residents as traitors for not voting for the the saffron party, which claimed credit for construction of the temple and had proclaimed itself as ‘Ram ko laane waale'. Irate Hindutva supporters are pressing for economic boycott of the town, which has witnessed a footfall of 1-1.5 lakh visitors daily since the temple was opened in January. Ayodhya is believed to have welcomed close to 2.03 crore tourists in 2022. Infrastructure development by the Yogi Adityanath government including rail, road and air connectivity before the temple was ready was cited as one of the reasons.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath campaign for BJP candidate from Faizabad (where the Ram Mandir is located) Lallu Singh (extreme right) during a road show in Ayodhya. In a neck-to-neck fight, Samajwadi Party's Awadesh Prasad from the Scheduled Caste Pasi community won by over 50,000 votes defeating incumbent MP Singh

It was a particularly embarrassing loss for the saffron party, which had made the Ram Mandir one of its main poll planks. BJP candidate Lallu Singh had won in the constituency in both 2014 and 2019, and most people believed he would pull off a hat-trick this time, coasting on the fanfare over the temple and the thousands-of-crores-worth of development that the BJP had promised in Ayodhya.

But as the final results rolled in, and it was announced that Singh had instead lost by 54,567 votes, all hell broke loose on social media.

The arterial road christened Ram Path in the run up to the consecration of the Ram Mandir, earlier this year saw the demolition of shops and homes, and the displacement of locals. The town got a facelift. But locals rue that the demolitions were sudden, and the compensation far from adequate

Ironically, a political source close to Singh told mid-day that it may have been the aggressive infrastructure development that turned the local residents against the BJP in Ayodhya, where homes and shops were demolished, and roads widened to carry out the BJP government's ambitious development plan. The social media onslaught ranged from memes themed on betrayal and back-stabbing, to posts threatening economic boycott of the temple town's businesses and even violence against local residents.

Influencers Daksh Choudhary and Annu Choudhary uploaded a video abusing the people of Ayodhya for voting against BJP, and can be heard inciting people to violence. The video went viral, following which, UP Police arrested the duo.

Sunil Lahri and SP's Faizabad pick, Awadhesh Prasad, won by 54,567 votes

It's not the first time the duo has made headlines - they had attained notoriety for slapping Congress's candidate from North East Delhi and former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar during a poll campaign drive. At the time, they had been detained and were later released by cops.

The controversy snowballed when Mumbai-based actor Sunil Lahri - who played Lord Ram's brother, Laxman, in the Ramayana series on TV - posted a story on Instagram, dubbing Ayodhya citizens as ‘selfish' for ‘betraying their king' (BJP's Singh).

An ascetic leaves after casting his ballot at a polling station during the fifth phase of voting in Ayodhya on May 20. The defeat in four out of five assembly segments in the Faizabad constituency, where Ayodhya is situated, reiterates that the temple and development card backfired. Pics/Getty Images

Lahri's story is no longer visible. When contacted, he said he was an ‘apolitical person', but had posted the story in a ‘sudden reaction' to the Faizabad seat results.

"I did not say a word about other constituencies, but was concerned about Ayodhya, where I have witnessed development in the last few years. The government has made an airport, roads, and has been improving infrastructure, yet the people of Ayodhya did not vote for the party that constructed a gigantic Ram temple," he told mid-day.

Social media was rife with posts abusing Ayodhya residents; (Right) A meme depicting UP voters as backstabbers

"The people of Ayodhya are thankless as they did not choose BJP candidate in this election….The people of Ayodhya have betrayed BJP," he said. "Sab laalach ke chakkar me reh gaye (it's all a matter of greed). They (Ayodhya voters) were promised R1 lakh per annum by the rival party if they won this election," claimed Lahri.

The Ayodhya temple, which had served as a rallying point for Hindutva supporters in the country, has now divided the saffron wing. No sooner had the poll results been declared on June 4, than Godman Raju Das posted on X: "Accha hua Ramayan mai Ramji Ravan se yuddh karne ke liye bandaro aur bhaluo ko hi le gaye the! Agar Ayodhya walo ko le jaate toh sone ki Lanka mai sone ke chakkar mai Ravan se bhi samjhota kar lete!! (Thankfully, in the Ramayana, Lord Ram had taken monkeys and bears to fight Ravana. If he had taken the people of Ayodhya, they might have been tempted by golden Lanka and made a deal with Ravana)"

The tweet reached 1.3 million viewers.

Faisal Devji, historian; (right) Local resident Shrikant Vishwakarma said BJP's Faizabad candidate had done little to help local residents

Many others posted that they would still like to make a pilgrimage to the Ram Mandir, but would not give any business to the local shops."If I go to Ayodhya, I will visit Ram Lalla, but I will not do any financial transaction of even one rupee with any shopkeeper or person of Ayodhya, even if it is Prasad… Drown in the Saryu. You are traitors of Shri Ram," posted X user, KK Nehra, who got nearly 30,000 views.

Influencer Pratiksha Nayyar posted a video on her Instagram account, urging people to visit the temple, but not to book hotels or auto rickshaws there, or even buy prasad from the local shops. "The people of Ayodhya must realise (their mistake)," she said.

Asked whether the temple trust was concerned about a drop in footfall, Sharad Sharma, the temple's media in-charge and VHP leader, said, "Every day, around 80,000 people visit for Lord Ram's darshan. There are many ups and downs in politics, but election results will not impact the footfall of devotees."

However, Ankur Sharma, who runs Dawesar Tour & Travels in Ayodhya, said business had slowed down. "We are getting business, but it has slowed after the election… People voted for their preferred candidate, and it should not negatively impact the local citizens. BJP lost a majority of seats in Ayodhya because of its poor choice of candidate and campaign."

Political sources in Ayodhya told mid-day that another major factor behind BJP's loss in the seat may have been SP's choice of the winning candidate, Dalit leader Awadhesh Prasad alias Awadhesh Pasi.

"Lallu Singh had made a comfortable victory from the Faizabad seat in both 2014 and 2019. After inaugurating the Ram temple, the BJP was overconfident and fielded the sitting MP hoping for a hat-trick. But (SP leader) Akhilesh Yadav played the Dalit card, pitting Awadhesh Prasad against Singh, decimating him," the sources said.

Prasad, on the other hand, claims it was BJP's arrogance that led to its downfall. "We welcome the Ram temple in Ayodhya, but BJP has been staking claims that they built it. Everyone knows that it has been built following the apex court order," Prasad said, "They always underlined that ‘hum Ram ko laaye hain' [We have brought Ram], and in the posters, Narendra Modi's image was larger than Lord Ram's. Who is BJP to bring Ram to Ayodhya? The voters did not like all these claims of the BJP," he added.

The SP leader appealed to people not to lash out at Ayodhya's residents in their frustration over the poll results. "I would request people not to post any inflammatory content on social media about Ayodhya as it is a sensitive subject. Any hate post will be an attack on democracy. The hate-mongers should change their ideology to embrace peace," he said.

Sandeep Tripathi, journalist and honorary political consultant, said it came down to better political strategy by SP.

"SP successfully garnered votes from the scheduled caste, OBC, and consolidated Muslim communities. It worked diligently on the voter base and managed to secure the votes. BJP was overconfident, believing they would win the election on the popularity of PM Narendra Modi," he said.

While social media users lauded the development work in Ayodhya, sources close to BJP candidate Singh said the rampant pace of infra works may have backfired against the party.

"While constructing the temple, many roads were widened, and shops and houses were demolished. People took this negatively and cast their votes accordingly," he said, adding, "We are not against the residents of Ayodhya. We received votes from Ayodhya, but received less support in other cities in Faizabad, which impacted the results."

In the months leading up to the opening of the Ram Mandir, the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government announced several infra projects in Ayodhya, adding up to a whopping R85,000 crore.

Last December, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly built Ayodhya airport. Phase 1 of the state-of-the-art airport has been developed at a cost of over Rs 1,450 crore. Several roadworks are also in the pipeline.

Also in the works is the massive R1,200-crore New Ayodhya township project that is expected to come up on 1,407-acre land on both sides of the Lucknow-Gorakhpur highway, and will have a lake replenished with Saryu water to give a spiritual look to it.

Prafulla Ketkar, editor of Organiser (Weekly), a magazine backed by the Hindutva voluntary organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said, "In Ayodhya, there will be hospitals, a gurukul, an international airport and a museum, which will positively impact the economy of Ayodhya."

"BJP lost the election this year due to caste identity becoming prominent in Faizabad. The election and the temple are two different things and not connected with each other. BJP didn't fight the election on the credit of Ayodhya temple."

However, political expert and psychology professor at Saket College Dr Sudheer Kumar Rai told mid-day that the government had overlooked the convenience of local residents of Ayodhya while undertaking infra work on such a large scale.

"Ayodhya was C-grade town, but one year before inaugurating the Ram temple, the authorities started massive excavation work to make it A-grade. All the roads were dug up simultaneously and people faced massive inconvenience. I fear that in the coming days, we will hear news of road rage in Ayodhya," he said.

The residents weren't even invited to the grand opening of the temple, he added. "On the day of the inauguration, the entire world including business honchos, political heavyweights and Bollywood celebrities were invited by the BJP, but there was no space for Ayodhya residents."

Faisal Devji, professor of Indian history and fellow of St Antony's College at the University of Oxford, weighed in: "I don't think many locals have gained much from the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the building of a temple there. While there must, of course, be many shopkeepers, artisans, and labourers who will have seen a rise in demand for their services, they will also have been muscled out of the most profitable markets by big money from outside the town. Already in the mid-1990s, when I visited it, priests on the ghats of the Saryu were complaining that they had to pay much higher rents for space there and were being pushed out by outsiders."

Some Ayodhya residents echoed similar frustration over being neglected by the government in its haste to make Ayodhya a pilgrimage hotspot. Pankaj Sharma, 37, who lost his 75-year-old paan and tobacco shop due to the construction of the Ram Path, one of the many new roads planned to connect Ayodhya to other cities, said, "My family lost its only source of livelihood. We were offered shops outside the city where business footfall is expected to be low. Everyone will visit the temple; why will pilgrims go to shops in the outskirts? Nobody listened to us, and now we are facing hostility from all sides. Now we are uncertain if we will even receive the promised benefits."

Delhi-based lawyer Nimisha Pandey, 28, a native of Ayodhya Cantt, says, "Although there has been some infrastructural development, it primarily benefits the affluent. For example, the new airport. Flights to Ayodhya are expensive from every metro city. Ayodhya is a poor place. Its poverty needs to be studied. Why is this town, which has been in headlines for decades, still so poor?"

Others said the BJP candidate did nothing to improve the lot of locals. Local resident and interior designer Shrikant Vishwakarma said, "Water taps have reached houses in Ayodhya city and villages, but villagers are not getting water. Toilet facilities are also not developed in the villages. Villages like Rudauli, Bikapur, Vikaspuri, and Ambedkar Nagar voted against the BJP for this reason."

Inputs by Anand Singh

Sonu Nigam gets heat for namesake's social media post

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