There is no guarantee when the real Ram Mandir, if at all, can be built in Ayodhya. The workshop, where parts of the proposed temple were being built by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to keep the emotions alive, has also stopped functioning for the past two years.
The workshop was started by the VHP in 1989, coinciding with the BJP movement raking up the Ram temple issue.
The formal reason is there is no more space to house the huge stones required for building the temple. “Also, the pink stones lying under the open sky are getting fungus affected, raising black spots on them. So, we have decided to discontinue the work,” says Nagendra Upadhyay, supervisor of the workshop for the last 16 years.
But a section of the local priests claim shortage of funds has forced the VHP to stop the work. VHP’s former chief Ashok Singhal, too, had admitted to facing financial problems but had promised to resume work. But the huge iron machines in the workshop — better known as Ram Mandir Nirmaan Karyashala — are still silent.
A wooden model of the proposed temple has been installed near the main entrance of the workshop, located around three kilometres away from the hustle and bustle of the Hanuman Garhi area.
Conducted tours organised by local guides include a visit to the workshop and show what the temple would look like once it is built.
Earlier, the VHP had brought dedicated workers from Rajasthan and Gujarat to carve the stone blocks with various designs like flowers and windows. There were around 150 people working regularly at the site, which remains protected by police. “All the workers have been sent back. We gave them some money and told them they will be called back when the final verdict comes out,” says Upadhyay.
The original temple envisaged by designers will be a 268-ft-long, 140-ft-wide and 128-ft-tall structure. About 175,000 cubic feet of stone would be required for the temple, to be built on 38,000 sq ft.
As a group of tourists from Karnataka comes to see the workshop that also contains bricks collected from various parts of the country to build the temple, Upadhyay is clear that whatever be the verdict of the court, consultations and cooperation would be required to build a temple at the disputed site.
Even though the construction work has stopped, the donation box at the workshop is earning money for the VHP. “Some days we get Rs 500, some days we even get Rs 2,000 from the devotees,” says Upadhyay.
