Delhi streets painted in saffron as 1.5L gathered for VHP rally

The mega rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan was organised by VHP to demand an ordinance to build a Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Residents around Ramlila Maidan woke up to “shankhnaad” and chants of “Jai Shri Ram” in the background as over a lakh people gathered on Sunday to demand a Ram Temple at the disputed Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.

Supporters of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) attend a VHP rally at Ramlila Ground to press their demand for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

At the mega rally called the “Dharmik Sabha”, organised by the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), demands of an ordinance to build a temple were raised. The Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title dispute is currently in the Supreme Court.

The rally began at 8am. Saffron-clad crowds, men, women and children, poured onto the streets from buses, the metro and autorickshaws and headed to the famous Ramlila grounds in central Delhi. Some even came by chariots, the vehicle used by Lord Ram in the war to defeat Ravana.

People in the area said the roads looked as if it were painted saffron, said locals. The route was also decked up with saffron flags of ‘Om’ and ‘Sia Ram’.

A supporter from Maharashtra, Panduranga Makranda, claims to have been supporting the construction of the temple for over two decades. He said that he lost his teeth and fractured his skull during face-offs with security forces while protesting for the temple in the last few years. In Delhi, he brought with him tools ready to begin work on the temple at short notice.

“I am a sculptor and I can build the temple for my Lord. I have all the tools and material with me right now,” he said.

As the crowd swelled at the ground, the ambience reverberated with slogans of ‘laathi, joote khayenge mandir wahin banayenge’, ‘ram lala hum ayenge, mandir wahin banayenge’, ‘Baba sapna poora karenge, mandir ka nirman karenge’.

Many in the crowd also wielded swords, maces and trishuls as a “warning”.

“It is the holy land of Lord Ram and we will go to any extent to get our god his temple. We (hindus) will have to take matters into their own hands if our demands are not met,” said Dev Raj Tripathy, a priest who had come from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.

VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said that all “true Hindus” of India wanted a temple in Ayodhya, believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram. “The government must give the people what they want,” Bansal said. The right-wing group claimed that close to 1.5 lakh supporters turned up for the rally.

Although the BJP did not officially participate in the rally, several of its senior leaders were seen sharing the dais with the organisers in their “personal capacity”. BJP MPs from Delhi Meenakshi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Sahib Singh, and leader of opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta were seen at the event.

“I am here as a Hindu, not as a politician. I am here just like lakhs of others are,” Lekhi said.

Thirteen-year-old Prayag Singh Rajput from Haryana had no idea when the Babri mosque was demolished and what led to these developments. But he, along with around a dozen classmates, were at the forefront of the crowd demanding the construction of a temple.

“We are proud Hindus and this is a Hindu Rashtra. We want to know what is stopping the government from ordering the temple’s construction. When the people of India are with you, then why worry?” the class VIII student said.

Even after the rally ended, supporters took out a ‘bhagwa dhwaj yatra’ where a continuous piece of saffron cloth was spread across kilometres to “spread the message of Lord Ram” and push for the temple.