NEW DELHI: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has made significant inroads into the Ramleela scene in the Capital, if the current trend of “sanctity conscious” Ieelas is a criterion. Many of these were till very recently controlled cither by Congress-sponsored organizations or by independent businessmen.
The 11-day long Ramleela festival which concluded on Oct.8, demonstrated how the VHP managed to use many of the Ramleelas as a campaign platform for its fortnight long Ram charan paduka Yatra which commenced in the Capital from Wednesday.
The distinction between the VHP sponsored or influenced Ramleelas and those that lacked the VHP sponsorship was clearly visible, pointed out a couple of visitors to these shows.
As far as the main show was concerned the VHP-sponsored Ramleelas laid great stress on the religious sanctity of the “leela.”
The pandal where the shows were held, were made like mandirs, the audience was made to sit around the stage with awe and reverence, no smoking was allowed inside the pandals, nor would the organizers allow anyone smelling of liquor to enter the pandal, claimed many organizers,
Apart from that the actors participating in the shows were frequented to stick only to vegetarian diet throughout the period, In between the show there were occasional announcements on the VHP paduka program which was to follow immediately after.
This paled into comparative insignificance before even the Congress-sponsored Ramleelas such as the one at Subhash Maidan near Daryagunj despite the fact that the Chairman of the Finance Commission, K.C. Pant performed the Tilak ceremony for the Shri Dharmie Ramlila Committee which organized the show and the organizers managed to draw most VHP’s including the President’s wife as well as the Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Sigh who were present at the concluding ceremony.
The worse sufferers were traditional Ramleelas such as the one at the famous Ramlila grounds.
The huge and spacious Ramlila grounds, used the year round for political campaigns, and public meetings derive the name because that used to be the traditional venue of the biggest and most well known Ramlila performances in the Capital.
The Lav Kush Ramlila Committee was established three years ago as a breakaway group of the Sanatan Dharm Lila Committee which had traditionally been staging Ramlila at the Fateh Puri grounds near Church Road.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 23, 1992
