I received a mail from Sandip Nayak who writes, “Lord of the Link (published on Monday’s edition), the story on the Hanuman statue, is well done. But I had not expected from you at least to ignore collateral menace accompanying religious places. Traffic menace being the major woe. I am afraid, once the statue and temple etc is complete, the menace we see at Sai Baba temple, Lodhi Road would be pale in comparison.

“India is a country where you can summon god and cage him at the most inconvenient of places like traffic island, footpath, government land, to name a few. They haven't spared even the footpath outside the Parliament and just outside the main gate of Nirvachan Sadan at the heart of the Republic of India.

“And how did we think that the God would be happy being summoned at the central verge of the busy Mathura Road near Badarpur? In fact, most of the temples and shrines nurtured at the roadside and on public land are a source of livelihood for some wandering beggars. Once it comes up, forget about eviction, you can raise a few brick walls and rent it out as shops. We must end this public display of religion, rather this traffic disrupting and land-grabbing sects. There can never be any double standard regarding faith.”

I truly agree with you Sandip about your comments on the above topic. I truly support you on this, but you are not justified when you talk about this particular temple, as it existed much before even Link Road came into existence. I agree the collateral menace will accompany once the construction is complete. But we can do little about this. Only expect Delhiites visiting this temple to have some civic sense and not park the vehicles alongside the busy Link Road.