Sudhir Nag, a kar sevak, who received a .303 rifle bullet shot under his right eye in 1990 during police firing in Ayodhya, is 30 years on still adamant that he will visit the Ram Janambhoomi site only when the Ram temple is built.
The bullet scar is still there. He has lost vision in the right eye and his vision in the left eye, too, is diminishing. But he is firm on his vow of not visiting the temple site till the temple is built.
“I will set eye on Ram Janmabhoomi (RJB) when the temple is built. I would have stayed away from the Ram temple bhumi pujan ceremony even if I was invited,” says Nag paradoxically. He is not an invitee.
Nag, a resident of Ayodhya, had vowed in 1990 to never go back to the RJB site where he was shot, until the temple was built.
The police firing on kar sevaks had taken place on the orders of the then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav near the Ram Janmabhoomi site.
“A .303 bullet had entered my face and some pellets entered my eyes. I instantly lost sight in the right eye as the retina was fully shattered while vision in the left eye is fading slowly,” said Nag who was 21 then.
For close to three decades, Sudhir Nag has carried the scar on his face and a grudge in his heart. “Now, I don’t even have a grudge against him (Mulayam Singh Yadav). He, too, is witnessing the process for the temple construction. I will go to the RJB site when the temple is ready. Not before that. Doesn’t matter if I turn blind in the other eye also. A vow is a vow,” said Nag.
Nag also condemned the deaths of 28 other kar sevaks in the police firing that ratcheted up tensions across the country.
On October 30, 1990 Nag was leading a batch of 70 kar sevaks towards the RJB site when police firing started and a bullet hit him in the face. He survived following three successive surgeries at Lucknow’s Medical College.
On December 6, 1992, thousands of kar sevaks stormed the police barricades, climbed on top of the three domes of the Babri masjid and broke it to pieces with hammers and pick axes.
