Ram Temple Trust meet to decide fate of top office-bearers on Monday

Controversy over temple donations deepens as the Ram Temple Trust prepares to decide on resignations and internal restructuring

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which manages Ayodhya’s Ram temple, will have a meeting on Monday to decide on the matter relating to General Secretary Champat Rai and Trustee Anil Mishra, who submitted their resignations in the wake of the probe into the alleged embezzlement of donations to the temple. 

Apart from deciding upon the resignation letters of Rai and Mishra, Monday’s meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya is also likely to consider plans for a new administrative structure for the Trust's operations

The issue of the alleged theft is set to feature prominently at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS’s) three-day annual Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak Baithak in Belagavi, Karnataka, starting July 10. 

 

The Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak Baithak is where the top RSS leadership of all its provincial units gathers to discuss contemporary issues. The RSS and its affiliates, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had led the Ram temple agitation. On Friday, the RSS gave its first formal statement on the issue with Dattatreya Hosabale, number two in the Sangh leadership, stating the alleged theft had “deeply hurt” the sentiments and faith of the entire society, and called for ensuring that anyone found guilty after the investigation faced severe punishment. 

On Sunday, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Nagpur that he agreed with Hosabale. 

“See the statement released by Hosabale ji ... my reaction is also the same,” Bhagwat told reporters in Nagpur. 

On Sunday, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh demanded the government order an inquiry into the matter by a sitting Supreme Court judge. He said the “silence of the prime minister and the home minister” on the issue was “shocking" and the RSS statement on it “disgraceful and shameful”. 

Ramesh alleged the people who were part of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust were there “because they are trusted by the BJP-RSS”. 

“To think that the RSS did not know what is happening, to think that the PM (Prime Minister) and HM (home minister) did not know what was happening, is beyond imagination. Everybody knew what was happening, this whole enterprise was a political enterprise and the donation, trust were part of that,” Ramesh said. The Congress leader asked what Nipendra Mishra, who had been principal secretary to the Prime Minister, was doing. 

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday accused the BJP and RSS of being responsible for an alleged ₹20,000 crore “loot” linked to donations made in the name of the Ram Temple. 

In a letter dated July 4, VHP International President Alok Kumar urged the Ayodhya police to examine the claims made by several Opposition leaders on the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple and summon them to substantiate the allegations. 

Kumar said action should be taken against them if it was found that they made “wild allegations” intended to create and promote feelings of “hatred, ill will and enmity”. 

Meanwhile, the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) has constituted a  four-member panel to probe alleged irregularities in the handling of pilgrims’ offerings and donations at Badrinath Dham. The committee said it took cognizance of allegations, which went viral on social media. 

The BKTC has asked the committee to submit its report within seven days. The Uttarakhand unit of the Congress party held a silent protest at the Bagnath Temple complex in Bageshwar against the alleged irregularities at the Badrinath Dham. 

The issue of management of Hindu temples was central to the BJP’s campaign for the Kerala Assembly polls. It demanded freeing temples from state control in the context of the alleged gold thefts at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. It argued that temple wealth and donations should be managed exclusively by committees of Hindu believers. 

On Sunday, Shiv Sena  (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray launc­hed his “Ram Raksha”  agitation in Mumbai. 

In the context of the alleged irregularities at Ayodhya’s Ram temple, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Rajya Sabha Member John Brittas has asked the Centre to reconsider its stand that the Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was not a public authority under the Right to Information Act. 

  With inputs from PTI