Senior VHP leader Praveen Togadiya being arrested by the police in Ayodhya on Sunday. (AFP)
Its top leaders have been arrested in a massive crackdown by the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh, but Vishwa Hindu Parishad sources say activists will try and assemble once again near Ayodhya today.
It has also called for a bandh in Ayodhya.
On Sunday, a yatra planned by the right-wing organisation was reduced to symbolism amid tight security arrangements and a wave of arrests by the Samajwadi Party government determined to enorce its ban on the 21-day 84 kos parikrama or 300-km march around Ayodhya.
In numbers that meant 8000 cops deployed in and around Ayodhya and 2096 people arrested over three days. The administration has said the deployment will continue till after September 13, meant to be the last day of the yatra.
Among those arrested yesterday were VHP leaders like Praveen Togadia and Ram Vilas Vedanti, who defied prohibitory orders; they have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days each. VHP chief Ashok Singhal was detained as he landed at the Lucknow airport. For hours, the 87-year-old refused to leave for Delhi and said the yatra cannot be stopped now as hundreds of saints from across the country have left for Ayodhya.
In all the melee in Ayodhya, as groups of activists darted out of temples and ashrams to challenge the police, the VHP said it had launched its yatra. The administration has now strengthened security in Makhauda in Basti district, about 25 km from Ayodhya, where the yatra was to have reached by today.
The VHP proposed to march through six districts before returning to Ayodhya on September 13. It has said this is part of its effort to mobilise support for construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid was brought down on December 6, 1992.
These six districts have a sizeable Muslim population, a crucial vote bank for the ruling Samajwadi Party government, which had sought to score some brownie points with the minorities when it banned the VHP yatra last week.
The Congress has criticised Sunday's events as "match-fixing" between the Samajwadi Party and the BJP, which is affiliated to the VHP, in UP. It alleges that this is an attempt to polarise vote banks in the state.