Denied a mortuary van, tribal man walks 10 km carrying wife's body

Bengaluru, Aug 4: Police barricades, yellow banners, walls with a fresh coat of paint and the sounds of bhajan mark parts of Ayodhya as the city awaits its big day Wednesday, when the first brick will be laid for the Ram temple.

Ayodhya is decked up for the bhoomi pujan that will be attended at the Ram Janmabhoomi by 175 people, who figure in a select guest list of seers and politicians topped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Concerned over the spread of coronavirus, the authorities are encouraging others not to come to the temple town, asking them to mark the occasion by celebrating at their homes. The groundbreaking ceremony will be telecast live.

Roads leading to Ayodhya display hoardings with the picture of the proposed Ram temple and of Ram Lalla, the infant Ram, the deity now housed in a makeshift temple.

Around the town’s Hanumangarhi area – named after a well-known temple which Modi will visit on Wednesday – both police sirens and ‘bhajans’ in praise of Ram are heard.

Most of the shops in the locality wear a new look, with their fronts painted in bright yellow. A large number of policemen were deployed there on Tuesday. Some sat in the sweet shops, waiting for their next instructions.

Roads leading into the area are barricaded. Yards of yellow cloth and marigold garlands were being hung on poles.

Even on the day before the event, security checks on vehicles heading to Ayodhya begin from adjoining Barabanki district itself on the Lucknow-Ayodhya road. Policemen take down details, including mobile numbers of the travellers.

Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar said the focus of the force is on maintaining the Covid-19 protocol.

“So we are not going to allow any outsider to enter Ayodhya city,” he said. Prohibitory orders are also in force and not more than four people will be allowed to gather.

“The markets and shops will remain open but with strict adherence to the Covid protocol,” he said. Outsiders will be stopped from entering the city, but Ayodhya residents will be allowed in if they produce any identification document.

“We are also carrying out random checks on people living in Ayodhya to ensure that no outsiders are staying here,” he said.

The city’s temples and mosques will remain open, but no other religious event – except for the bhoomi pujan – will take place on Wednesday.

Pickets have been set up at sensitive points in the city.

Sub-inspector Ram Chandra Yadav and constables Avnish Kumar and Ankit Chaudhary man the Terhi Bazar Chauraha picket near the Ram Janmabhoomi site.

"We are here for the past some days, and were on duty on the Rakshabandhan day. Duty comes first and only after that come other things in life, like festivals," Yadav said.

Mayank Gupta, who runs a restaurant, was handing out food packets to policemen, his customers.

"For the last two months, I have been providing tiffin to them twice a day. There are around 100 policemen to whom I supply tiffin," Gupta said.

Bengaluru, Jul 28: Several state Congress leaders, including its President D K Shivakumar, among others, were detained by police as they tried to march towards Raj Bhavan here against the alleged attempts by BJP to topple the party's government in Rajasthan.

Shivakumar, along with Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, state Congress Working President Eshwar Khandre, Salim Ahmed among others were stopped by the police midway as they marched from KPCC office towards Raj Bhavan.

Congress leaders then staged a dharna at the place where they were stopped. Addressing the gathering, Shivakumar accused the BJP of trying to "murder" democracy by destabilizing and removing elected governments.

"We wanted to protest against it and submit a memorandum to the President through the Governor," but the Karnataka government by using police was not letting them proceed towards Raj Bhavan, he said. "Despite our being a peaceful protest, the police stopped us," he said.

Siddaramaiah, echoing similar views, said peaceful protests against injustice was the right of every citizen. Alleging that the BJP was attempting to destabilise and remove the elected government in Rajasthan as it did in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, he said the Governor's office there (Rajasthan) was being 'misused'.

The Governor was working like an agent of the central government, he charged. He said, despite repeated appeals by the Rajasthan cabinet, the Governor there had not convened the assembly session, for the floor test to take place and for Congress to prove its majority. Police subsequently detained Shivakumar and some other Congress leaders and took them to a nearby police station.

They were later released. Meanwhile, as the Congress' protest amid Covid19 pandemic did not follow social distancing norms, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar hit out at that party's leaders. In a tweet Sudhakar said, for Congress leaders getting publicity was more important than social concerns.