Karsevaks Hiding, Waiting For Mar 15

AYODHYA, MAR 5 (PTI)

As the government attempts to prevent a build-up of Karsevaks at Ayodhya,organisers of the temple construction programme have embarked on a changedstrategy to ensure the participation of up to one lakh Karsevaks in the
March 15 programme.

While the authorities insist that the number of Karsevaks in the holy city isdeclining fast with each passing day, sources told PTI here that thousands ofthem are still present in the city waiting for March 15 and many more are"infiltrating" despite the city being virtually sealed.

Even as the two camps set up for Karsevaks wore deserted looks, thousands ofactivists of Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and VHP have been scattered in small groupsall over Ayodhya to avoid glare of authorities and media, the sources said.

The Karsevaks have been put up with hundreds of local VHP activists andsympathisers in small groups of two to four, the sources said.

Pointing out that those leaving Ayodhya were old men and women who had comehere just to participate in the yagya, the sources said thousands of young men,who would actually participate in the movement of pillars on March 15, hadstayed back and merged with local population.

Thousands are trickling in posing as locals after leaving their belongings inneighbouring districts. The strategy has been worked in such a way that theyhave been provided information about areas of Ayodhya and given addresses whichthey can claim to be theirs if caught by police.

"Several teams of local VHP activists and sympathisers have been formedto perform the task of hiding these Karsevaks," the sources said.

These teams are also told to help Karsevaks infiltrate into Ayodhya avoidingpolice, they claimed.

Many are stationed in neighbouring districts waiting for the rightopportunity to enter Ayodhya. "Up to a lakh Karsevaks managed to reachAyodhya even when there were the most stringent curbs during Mulayam Singh Yadavgovernment in 1990. When they could not stop us then, how can they do itnow," said a Bajrang Dal activist from Maharashtra who reached here usingvarious tactics.

"We provide all kind of help to Karsevaks which includes shelter, food,guide and looking into any other problem," said a leader of a team oflocals. He said he alone had helped more than 150 Karsevaks"infiltrate" into Ayodhya in the past three days and got them"settled here".

The real flow will start from tomorrow when Karsevaks from Uttar Pradesh arescheduled to proceed to Ayodhya. This is causing concern to the authoritiesalso.

The locals, well aware of topography, can give a slip to securitymen as theywould avoid main roads and use other passages, authorities say.

"As of now there is no large inflow of Karsevaks," said A K Gupta,Divisional Commissioner of Faizabad, under whose jurisdiction Ayodhya falls."If trouble is to be prevented here, Karsevaks need to be stopped at thepoint of origin," he said, adding that cooperation of authorities in allthe neighbouring districts of Faizabad is necessary.

"March 15 Inauspicious"

Meanwhile, BJP MP and leader of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement Vinay Katiyarcame up with the revelation that March 15 is actually an inauspicious date forbeginning work on temple construction and claimed that a peaceful resolution ofthe dispute was on the anvil.

Katiyar, who is associated with the VHP and has played a leading role in the RamJanmabhoomi stir, said that khalmas (an inauspicious period) would beginon March 10 and March 15 would fall within this period.

Asked why it was discovered now as the date had been decided by saints, he saidthe programme had been charted out a long time back when this factor was notknown.Katiyar claimed that March 15 was actually not supposed to be the date forcommencement of construction of Ram Temple but for movement of shilas(carved stones and pillars) to the undisputed site