Click to play videoAyodhya: Hammers and chisels fall silent at the Ram temple workshop in Ayodhya after 20 years. Is it the end of the era of temple politics in UP?
It's now come down to one or two kar sewaks at the nursery of Hindutva politics in Ayodhya.
The floral motif of the columns, being created with so much passion are being left to languish.
At best, the architecture will attract a few curious visitors and pilgrims. Ayodhya is falling silent - the lengthening shadows suggesting how the politics of Babri demolition is becoming distant memory.
Kar sewak Anubhai Sompuru says, “In the old days there used to be around 150to 200 workers. Now only 12-15 workers are there because there is not much to do.”
The karyashala is deserted. Once this was the hub of not just construction but also political activity. The BJP leadership has vanished from here. This election, Ayodhya is not going to be an issue. Fifteen artisans keep alive the dream of a temple.
Sompuru adds, “Now the work has slowed and we don't have enough space.''
Elsewhere in Ayodhya the pilgrim town leads a normal life without the political bustle of the nineties. The VHP signboard is a mute spectator. The columns are getting stacked at the workplace.
The only glimmer of hope is that some BJP politician will suddenly do something to create that old Ayodhya buzz.
These weather beaten pillars are a testimony to the inertia that has set into the Ram janmbhoomi movement reduced to a political tool to be used when convenient.
This stonework, which was meant to be a part of the foundations of the Ayodhya may never leave the premises of karyashala.
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