Ramayani Om Bharti Shukla is now old, but she can still remember vividly each small detail of November 2, 1990. This was the day when Ram Kothari and Sharad Kothari, both brothers and karsevaks, were dragged out of Shukla’s house by the Uttar Pradesh police in Shaheed Gali of Ayodhya and shot dead.
“It was a sad, horrific day. It was like what General Dyer had done in Amritsar. Everything happened in front of my eyes. My house is still riddled with those bullet marks. The ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of January 22 is the much-needed balm we needed to get over the wounds of 1990. We will celebrate the day of Ram Lalla in a big manner,” says Shukla, speaking to News18 in her dilapidated house in Shaheed Gali.
The street was named so after the 1990 killing of karsevaks here by the UP police. This 500-metre long street, near the famous Hanumangarhi temple, leads to the famous Digambar Akhara.
The street is decorated in saffron colours with people putting up ‘Jai Sri Ram’ flags on each house. Sitting outside one such house, Baba Das says he also saw the horror unfold that day.
“Firing had also happened on October 30, 1990 but people kept coming for Kar Seva. VHP was trying to stop them but people were not listening to Ashok Singhal too. A symbolic Kar Seva had happened on October 30, defeating the statement of Mulayam Singh Yadav that ‘yahan parinda bhi par nahin mar sakta’. There was firing again on November 2,” says Baba Das.
He says he saw Ram Kothari and Sharad Kothari being dragged out of Shukla’s house and being shot in the head.
“I had run in the other direction so I saved my life. The ‘Pran Pratishtha’ is happening which is a great development but this wound of 1990 will not heal. The only solace is that not just Ayodhya but the entire country is now enveloped in saffron colours,” Baba Das says.
Shukla says that Ram Bhakts from various states were staying in her house that day and were peacefully doing jaap of Lord Ram. “There was a compromise with the police after October 30 that there will be no more police firing. These karsevaks only wanted to do darshan of Ram Lalla Virajman. They were all resting in the house when some person threw a stone from the roof on the police and the cops barged in,” Shukla says.
She says many karsevaks hid themselves but the police found Kothari brothers in one of the rooms and dragged them out. “They were first beaten with sticks and then taken out and shot. Police opened fire inside my house too,” Shukla says. She has also been invited by the Ram Temple Trust for the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony on January 22.
“I will go there and remember the Kothari brothers whose sacrifice has today culminated into the making of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya,” she says.
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