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It was the firing on Vishwa Hindu Parishad karsevaks ordered by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1990, which gave wings to the fledgling political career of Vinay Katiyar, one-time Bajrang Dal activist who has risen to become president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh unit.
Katiyar was one of the thousands of karsevaks who had thronged to Ayodhya from different parts of the country in October that year. He reached the ancient town with a band of activists belonging to the then almost unknown Bajrang Dal from Kanpur, his hometown.
The first incident of firing on October 30, 1990, had left the activists dumbstruck and demoralised. It was then that Swami Vamdeo, the VHP organiser leading the karsevaks, decided to look for a young, aggressive man to lead the second round of demonstrations that was to follow two days later.
And thus Katiyar was thrust into the spotlight, having already displayed his firebrand approach over the preceding days.
What followed on November 2, when police shot dead more karsevaks, taking the official toll to 17, gave Katiyar's career a big boost. The firing thwarted, at least temporarily, the VHP's game plan to storm the 16th century Babri Masjid, but it propelled Katiyar into the ranks of top BJP leaders. Shortly thereafter, he was elevated as the Bajrang Dal president. The BJP wave that followed swept him into the Lok Sabha as the representative of Faizabad.
Though he had no connection with Ayodhya-Faizabad, Katiyar earned much infamy there when, in 1995, he was charged with keeping a young girl in illegal confinement for several days. The girl, a resident of Barabanki district, also accused him of rape.
A flustered Katiyar moved heaven and earth to kill the story in the various dailies where it had made headlines. He even threatened some journalists with dire consequences for exposing him. Finally he managed to influence the girl to withdraw the case.
"Even otherwise," observed Shitla Singh, editor of Jan Morcha, Faizabad's leading Hindi daily, "Katiyar has no feather in his cap to boast of, be it as a member of Parliament from this place or otherwise."
A local businessman, who preferred to remain anonymous, blamed Katiyar for the "utter neglect" of the twin towns of Ayodhya and Faizabad, while a Faizabad university professor termed him as nothing more than an "arrogant ruffian".
Yet, if the BJP leadership has decided to appoint him the party's leader in the state, it is not without good reason.
Political observers see Katiyar's elevation as successor to Kalraj Mishra, who had resigned in disgust earlier this month, as a deft move. For one, it is aimed at tapping into the backward-caste votes which left a huge hole in the BJP's support base following the unceremonious exit of former chief minister Kalyan Singh, the party's one-time leader of the backwards. Katiyar belongs to the powerful Kurmi community, which might be marginally weaker than the Yadavs, but has far more numbers than the Lodh community to which Kalyan Singh belongs.
The observers, however, see a bigger game behind the move. The elevation of Katiyar, seen as a frontline leader of the Ayodhya movement, to the BJP's top position in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh could also mean that the party is gearing itself to play the temple card again at the next Lok Sabha election.
"I would not rule out the possibility of a BJP design to even let the Vajpayee government fall on the Ayodhya issue and try out the temple card for one last time at the elections that follow," a senior political analyst said. "After all, the BJP is already down in the dumps and its leadership is still hopeful that the Ayodhya potion could resuscitate it."
The analyst added, "Haven't you seen how Katiyar is the only BJP leader who has always been in the forefront of all major temple-related events in Ayodhya? Even during the last VHP build-up in Ayodhya in February-March, Katiyar remained in prominence all along."
Whether the plan eventually succeeds is another matter, however.
The Ayodhya Dispute: The Complete Coverage
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