Of its arsenal of poll planks this election, the BJP appears to see Ayodhya as the Brahmastra.
Over 500 buses, 22 flights and 14 pairs of Astha trains now ply every day between Ayodhya and other cities, bringing in pilgrims to the Ram temple that Prime Minister Narendra Modi consecrated on January 22.
Government officials and RSS members stand dutifully at the bus stand, Ayodhyadham railway station and Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, welcoming the arriving passengers with flowers and mementos, such as portraits or bronze sculptures of Ram.
“Even before the temple consecration, RSS and BJP workers had been assigned the task of bringing people from their areas to the Ram temple in Ayodhya. They are doing their job very well,” an RSS official said, asking not to be quoted.
“Some enterprising BJP leaders who are sending their voters to Ayodhya on buses are also gifting dhotis to the men and saris to the women. We are receiving 50 to 100 buses every day from Amethi, Varanasi, Chandauli, Muzaffarnagar, Sambhal, Saharanpur and many other districts of Uttar Pradesh.”
Anil Mishra, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust that manages the temple, claimed the daily footfall at the shrine was about 2 lakh. A large proportion of the devotees are brought by the BJP and its Sangh Parivar brethren.
“The temple has been receiving offerings worth Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore every month. This shows the people’s faith in Ram,” Mishra said.
Sporting events and university seminars, too, are being held around the theme of Ram and his temple.
The Kreeda Bharati, a Pune-based organisation associated with the RSS, will conduct a “Run for Ram-Ayodhya Dham Marathon” in the temple town on March 10.
On Wednesday, the Ram Manohar Lohia Awadh University in Ayodhya began, in association with the NCERT, a three-day seminar on “A Study of Economic Concept in Indian Knowledge System”. Some of the papers being read by researchers from across the country are on the “Economics of Lord Ram”, “Benefits of Ram Temple in Ayodhya” and “Cultural Reawakening with the Ram Temple”.