Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor of The AIDEM has been covering Ayodhya since 1986, the period when the locks of the Babri Masjid were opened and Hindu worship was allowed at Ram Chabuthra, which was adjacent to the veranda of the Masjid. Since then, he has consistently covered the manifold events that have unfolded in the temple town over the past 38 years.

As preparations are underway for the consecration of the Ram temple at the very spot Babri Masjid stood till December 6, 1992, the day it was demolished by the karsevaks of the Hindutva combine, The AIDEM presents a three-part series that looks back at the very many stratagems employed by the Sangh Parivar to enforce a Hindutva Hegemony in the temple town.

This is a chronicle marked by many operations that involved the “Chanakya Neethi of Sama-Dhana-Bhed-Dand”, a combination of sedate entreaties, distribution of largesse, blatantly deceitful manoeuvres and physical attacks on people and institutions not just in the temple town, but in many other parts of the country.

Read the first part of the series tomorrow on The AIDEM. Stay Tuned.