I’m (18M, Hindu) a resident of Faizabad, the constituency which houses Ayodhya. Everyone seems to be surprised that BJP lost this constituency, as it seemed like the epicenter of all development and progress in the state(and possibly the country). While that may be true in the long run, the things a common man in Faizabad had to go through these past 18 months paints an entirely different picture. While the rest of the world got to witness the Ram Mandir’s glory, the residents of Ayodhya had other experiences.
My house happens to be located on Rampath. In this massive road widening and modernization project, they’ve destroyed around 5k houses and businesses: without proper rehabilitation or any compensation. They chopped away about 8-9m from my two-storey house, which also had our shop on the ground floor, and compensated with about 5L rupees. With land and construction charges so high, it was barely a compensation for us to extend our house upwards, while we also lost a considerable area of our shop, our only livelihood. They also mandated windows instead of balconies in all houses(clown move).
Many others were not as fortunate as us though. They got NOTHING for the land they had to relinquish cuz they didn’t have proper documents for it(it was their ancestral property and they were not aware enough to have proper documents.)
I saw many tea shops and small general stores disappear overnight with their owners getting nothing in return. Not to mention the unhealthy amount of dust we inhaled in those 11-12 months. Government contractors didn’t have proper methodologies and their work was very unorganised. We had to deal with long traffic jams in heat and dust on what were basically rural, mud roads in urban areas (due to the constant digging as they were making all the electricity lines underground).
They uprooted all the electricity poles as they have making the lines underground, but didn’t consider the internet fiber cables which used the same poles. Our fiber internet has been down since December 2023.
BJP losing this constituency may be surprising for the rest of the country, but it was barely a surprise to me and many others around me.
Another person added – My father is from ayodhya. And our extended family were the pandits of the Ram mandir. Our generations have served the temple. They kicked us out and brought in their own Pandits, trashed the local shops and demolished any houses that came in the way without any proper rehabilitation or remuneration. What did they expect?
This article is written by Alpha_Marine, a Reddit user.
