- Vendors have been forced to do handstands as punishment at a park in Ayodhya by civic officials
- The men were selling puja items outside the Ram temple during an anti-encroachment drive
- Punishment lasted for hours and was recorded by bystanders on mobile phones
Eight men doing a handstand in a park, their legs propped up on an adjacent wall as two men in uniform, armed with batons, pace up and down. The shocking punishment at Ayodhya's Deen Dayal Upadhyay park unfolded in front of a handful of people, some of whom made cellphone videos, which were widely circulated on social media.
Eyewitnesses said the punishment had been on for hours in the scorching sun.
What was more shocking was the reason for the action.
The men were not roadside Romeos -- who are often made to do sit-ups or given similar punishment by passing policemen. They were vendors, trying to make a livelihood selling puja items outside the Ram temple.
But selling their goods on the Ram Path proved expensive for the men after the municipal authorities launched an anti-encroachment drive.
The vendors were rounded up by the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation's enforcement team, who took them to a nearby park named after Jan Sangh leader and philosopher Deen Dayal Upadhyay, made to do sit-ups, headstands and other rigorous punishments.
Following strong comments on social media after the videos of the punishment were widely circulated, the civic body said it has ordered an investigation.
Confirming that employees of its enforcement team were involved, Ayodhya's Municipal Commissioner Jayendra Kumar said the matter is being probed. They will also take statements from the men targeted and the report will be in by this evening or early on Tuesday morning, he added.
The Congress has called it "Talibani behaviour" by the Ayodhya civic body, which exposes the "dictatorial mindset of the BJP".
