Ayodhya: As voters in Ayodhya go to the polls Monday in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the temple town that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into national limelight awaits jobs, development and the promise of “Ram tourism”.

Over the past five years, the constituency has seen the renaming of Faizabad district as Ayodhya, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also announcing a slew of measures to turn it into “Ram nagari” and a tourism hotspot.

But the journey of the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi faultline to a bustling tourism economy with its accompanying benefits has neither been swift nor smooth.

Jang Bahadur, a Jatav farmer from Tiwaripurwa village in the constituency, claims to have participated in the BJP rath yatra, which set the stage for the demolition of the Babri masjid, nearly three decades ago.

“In 1991, I had donated a brick for the construction of the temple. I fulfilled my duty,” Bahadur told ThePrint.

But Bahadur’s faith in the movement has waned. What now concerns Bahadur and his family of 15 is access to basic government facilities — toilets, housing, LPG and jobs. Bahadur works on less than two hectares of agricultural land, and his five sons work as daily-wage labourers in Faizabad city.

“Does anyone even listen to us?” said Vandana Devi, his daughter-in-law. “We [farmers] did not get anything from the government except a measly sum of Rs 2,000 (PM KISAN scheme). We did not get any money to build a toilet and we continue to go to the fields,” she added.

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Ram, tourism and Ayodhya

Ayodhya, believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram, is one of the destinations identified for development under the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious ‘Ramayana Circuit’, which seeks to make tourist hotspots out of the major places associated with the Hindu epic.

The Ayodhya chapter of the circuit was launched in September 2017, with a budget outline of Rs 133.30 crore and a proposed deadline of two years.

The proposed projects include a Rs 225 crore Ram museum to be built by the central and the state government together. A train that covers four destinations under the circuit, Shri Ramayana Express, was launched last year.

Several other initiatives to this end have been launched by the Uttar Pradesh government under Yogi Adityanath. For establishing “Ram Rajya”, the Yogi Adityanath government plans to construct a 221-metre statue of Ram and develop the Saryu riverfront at an estimated cost of over Rs 700 crore.

Since 2017, the city has been hosting a grand annual Diwali celebration with murals depicting episodes from the Ramayana painted across Ayodhya.

In November last year, the city entered the Guinness Book of World Records with its ‘Diwali Deepotsava’ when more than three lakh diyas or lamps were lit at an event where South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook was the chief guest.

More recently, the UP government’s 2019 budget sought to set aside Rs 300 crore for an airport at Ayodhya, and other tourism related projects.

But the measures are yet to bear fruit, and Ayodhya continues to remain low on priority for tourists visiting Uttar Pradesh.

According to government data, Ayodhya (Faizabad) ranked 55th out of 75 UP districts with regard to domestic tourist visits in 2018, as opposed to 54th in 2017. By foreign visits, it ranked 32nd in 2018, down from 31st the year before.

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Hurdles in turning Ayodhya into a tourist hotspot

Aman Motwani, a local tour operator who also runs a hotel, said tourism had poor prospects in Ayodhya because promises of development over the past few years hadn’t translated to actual development.

“No city can turn into a tourism hotspot if basic amenities are lacking,” said Motwani. “The city is dirty, even the temples. The streets are full of stray animals.”

Neeraj Newatia, who runs a travel agency from Varanasi, echoed the sentiment. “Every party rakes up the temple issue whenever it suits them. No political party is engaging in the issue of development, providing access to healthcare and education,” he added.

The district administration, however, claims the primary challenge to implementing their plans lies in the scale envisaged.

“Pulling off the massive plan is the main hurdle — land acquisition and rehabilitation for the big projects like the riverfront beatification… on temple premises, carrying out development work without disturbing the existing infrastructure,” Ayodhya district magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha told ThePrint.

Concerns on the ground

Meanwhile, locals are apprehensive about how the project will be carried out: Whether those displaced will be rehabilitated, and if the project will being new opportunities to turn their lives around.

Uma Shankar Pandey, a 29-year-old postgraduate, says his family’s year-old Rs 20 lakh home is among 200 homes in the Ramghat area, where the Saryu riverfront and Ram statue project are slated to come up.

“We have not been given any notice to vacate our property right now but we know it falls under the project area. I run a small cyber café in this area, too,” he added. “I will not just lose my house but also my bread and butter. How will I earn a living? I will either sell pakoras, or chai or become a chowkidar,” he said.

“I have been waiting for government vacancies, but there are few,” added Pandey, saying he held a Master’s in Computer Application degree from Awadh University.

On the banks of the Saryu, next to “Ram Ki Paudi”, where the Deepotsav was celebrated, boatman Mithun Manjhi was waiting for customers when ThePrint spoke to him.

Manjhi, a member of the Nishad community, was among more than two dozen local boatmen engaged by the government for the Deepotsav event.

“We made substantial earnings during the event. But such events take place rarely,” he said. “On a daily basis, we barely earn enough profit…We wish the government came up with a plan to give us a regular source of income,” he added.

Since the Babri Masjid demolition, the constituency has seen six MPs— it has been won by the BJP thrice, the Samajwadi Party twice and once by the Congress.

The contest this time is between former Ayodhya MP Nirmal Khatri of the Congress, incumbent BJP MP Lallu Singh, and SP-BSP-RLD candidate Anand Sen, the son of former two-term Ayodhya MP Mitrasen Yadav.

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