The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has cancelled the 84 kosi parikrama in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 252km circumambulation around what is believed to have been the spread of Lord Ram’s empire was to start on April 8. It would have crossed through Ayodhya, Barabanki and Gonda.
Ayodhya-based VHP spokesperson Sharad Sharma told THE WEEK, “Last year, about 1,000 people participated in the parikrama. This year, it has been cancelled as we need to stand in solidarity with the government and society. Religious and social rituals will survive only when the nation remains protected”.
The parikrama couldn't be postponed as it has to take place in Chaitra, the first month of the Hindu calendar.
The decision for the cancellation was taken by Sri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust chairperson Mahanat Nritya Gopal Das and secretary of the trust Champat Rai in consultation with the top leadership of the VHP.
“Preparations for the parikrama were complete. Seers from across the country would have been in Ayodhya for it. However, the country and society come first. If those are safe, then the parikrama can happen next year”, Sharma said.
The VHP had scaled down the Sri Ram Mahostav celebrations this year, despite the expectation that millions of Hindus would congregate at Ayodhya to celebrate the Supreme Court verdict on the title suit.
A section of the media had, however, recently reported that Mahanat Nritya Gopal Das had asked the devout to flock to Ayodhya to celebrate Ram Naumi (April 2). The reports had also claimed that the local administration had failed to reason with the trust on the enormity of the problem.
Sharma said such news had been floated maliciously. “Our ancestors have said that it is only when society is safe that religious and social obligations can be followed, and places of worship flourish. We stand in solidarity with the government’s decision to enforce the lockdown which might be a short term inconvenience”, he said.
On the morning after the prime minister announced the lockdown, the state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath was in Ayodhya to perform a special pooja to install Ram Lalla in his new temporary abode.
