India News ---Ayodhya

A day after, Ayodhya is back to business

Sanjay Pandey, Lucknow, Oct 1, DH News Service: ============================================================

Forty-five-year-old Zohra Khatoon is very busy as there is a good crowd of women—both Hindu and Muslims—at her cosmetic shop at Naya Ghat in Ayodhya, not very far from the disputed site.

The women items like bangles, “bindi” and other things. And Zohra could be seen helping them to try out the colourful bangles on their hands. The carefree and relaxed mood of the shopkeeper and  customers does not at all throw any indication that barely 24 hours back the roads were deserted and there was fear in the air as the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court was to pronounce its verdict on the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid ownership case. “We are back in business. Look at the crowd, there is no fear here,” a smiling Zohra says. Similar scenes are witnessed near the famous Hanumangarhi temple, Kanak Bhavan and other “mutts” and temples where the sound of bell is now louder and the number of devotees has suddenly gone up substantially. The shops selling sweets and puja materials around the famous temples in Ayodhya are also back in business after days of uncertainty. There were devotees in good numbers at the disputed site to have a “darshan” (paying obeisance) in the makeshift Ram Temple. With the security being relaxed, people had no difficulty in making their way to the place where the idols are kept. “Devotees are back...there are not only locals but also those arriving here from across Uttar Pradesh... daily visitors are increasing and could soon cross the five thousand mark,” the cheerful priest of the makeshift Ram Temple Mahant Satyendra Das told Deccan Herald. The residents—both Hindus and Muslims—in Ayodhya and Faizabad want to put behind everything and start afresh. “We want peace. No more acrimony now,” quipped Anurag Mishra, a local scribe. For the oldest litigant in the case 90-year-old Mohammad Hashim Ansari, the issue was now a “closed chapter.” “I have no desire to pursue the matter any further,” he said. Ansari is fighting with his age. “I don’t think I will be alive when the Supreme Court, if the matter goes there, will deliver its verdict,” he said. The mere fact that the twin towns of Faizabad and Ayodhya remained calm on the day of the verdict with no reports of any untoward incident indicate that everyone wanted peace. Realising the mood of the locals, the battery of media personnel who had descended on the town are also making plans to leave for their respective destinations. “There is no point in staying here any more,” said a scribe from Delhi. (deccan herald)