VHP Ayodhya Yatra against rituals: UP Police

NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ayodhya Yatra was a threat to communal harmony, against Hindu traditions and aimed at bringing the Ram Janambhoomi issue back in focus, the Uttar Pradesh Police has told Union home ministry in a report justifying the ban on the yatra.

The police report attached to it a calendar purportedly drawn up by the VHP to get saints and cadres from various parts of the country on different dates to participate in the said yatra in Ayodhya, a senior home ministry official said.

According to the report, VHP planned to get these participants from North Bihar, Malwa in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab, Jharkhand and even Jammu & Kashmir on different pre-determined dates from August 25 to September 13 to maintain a steady flow of people to Ayodhya.

The home ministry has advised the Uttar Pradesh government not to relax its security arrangements and check such mobilisation in the coming days, the official told ET.

UP on Sunday deployed police personnel in large numbers in Ayodhya and made a number of arrests across the state including top VHP leaders Pravin Togadia and Ashok Singhal to enforce its ban on the yatra. Singhal was meanwhile released on Monday.

The report sent to the home ministry by Arun Kumar, UP additional director general of police (law and order), said the state government decided to disallow the yatra because it could spark communal tension.

“The yatra is aimed at putting back the focus on the Ram Janambhoomi movement,” the report said. “There have been violent incidents in the past in the state always when such attempts have been made. The present Yatra could lead to communal violence in the state,” it added.