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Saffron flags, portraits: Hawkers look to ride the religious wave, make easy money
Commercial establishments, houses, and even highways in and around the state capital are all adding to the vigour of Pran Pratishtha.
Not just streetlights and road dividers, even bikes and autorickshaws can be seen gracing bright saffron flags with only days left for the much-awaited consecration ceremony of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir on January 22.
Busy marketplaces and hawkers can often be seen selling such flags and other similar merchandise by the dozens. Commercial establishments, houses, and even highways in and around the state capital are all adding to the vigour of Pran Pratishtha.
In his small cart, Shiva Jaiswal has put up for sale a few hundred pieces of merchandise hoping to ride the current religious wave and make easy money. A newspaper seller on any other day, Jaiswal has parked his cart opposite the Janpath Market, along with a number of other vendors like him.
While sales are slow, Jaiswal is nonetheless optimistic that he will get more customers as the ceremony date gets closer. “I’ve invested about ₹15,000 on flags, portraits, bandanas and pagdis. So far, I’m only able to make a few hundred rupees daily for the last 10 days.”
The most expensive items at his stall are the framed pictures of chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Lord Ram, all of which are priced at ₹350.
Rahul Kumar owns a store near the BJP head office here, in which he sells political merchandise all year round. “At this time, it is obvious that we will be putting up saffron products as our mainstay,” said Kumar, who took over the shop from his father.
He has acquired his current stock, worth Rs. 50-60 lakh, from Ahmedabad. The stock includes not only flags of many sizes, but also caps, miniature models of the Ram Mandir, portraits of Lord Ram and chief minister Yogi Adityanath. All of the products are centred around the shades of saffron. “We are making sales worth Rs. 1-1.5 lakh every day.”
Harsh Singh of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, who was also at the shop, said that his organisation had already bought 10,000 flags.
Several vendors have jumped on the bandwagon eager to make easy money. Even those who usually sell jackets and helmets in Hazratganj and on Lohia Path are also selling saffron flags and similar products.
