Seers oppose Akhilesh Yadav’s planned Ayodhya temple visit

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to visit Ayodhya’s Ram Temple with his family on December 12, a plan that has drawn opposition from seers demanding an apology over the 1990 firing on karsevaks during his father’s tenure as Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

Yadav has defended the planned visit, saying religious places belong to everyone. Speaking in Lucknow on November 11, he said he would also visit Kedareshwar, Mathura and Vrindavan. He has not said that he will apologise, and the visit remains scheduled rather than completed.

Around 400 saints and seers in Ayodhya reportedly agreed at a meeting to oppose his entry into the city’s traditional five-kosi sacred boundary unless he apologises. Their demand also includes meeting families of people killed in the 1990 firing. The accounts of the meeting and the proposed opposition come from statements by seers; no attempted blockade has been reported.

Raj Kumar Das, a member of the Shri Ram Temple Religious Committee, said the seers were not opposed to Yadav personally or to his visiting the temple, but wanted the 1990 deaths acknowledged. Mahant Ramdas of Siddhpeeth Naka Hanumangarhi said the seers would oppose the...