India’s Hindu nationalists confront fraud claims at controversial Ram temple

NEW DELHI – Back on Jan 22, 2024, Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were riding high on a wave of Hindu nationalism. That was the day the Indian Prime Minister inaugurated the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, fulfilling a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge.

The grand temple had been constructed on the site of the 16th-century Babri mosque, brought down by Hindu mobs in 1992.

Many Hindus believe the mosque was built by Muslim invaders on the ruins of a temple where Ram, the Hindu deity, was born. Hindu litigants were handed the disputed plot by the country’s top court after a protracted legal battle.

It was the BJP’s campaign to build the temple at the site of the demolished mosque that propelled the party into political prominence in the 1990s, but today the same temple has put the party in a tight spot.

Many Hindus have been shocked by revelations that devotees’ donations to the Ram Temple worth tens of millions of rupees may have been embezzled under the watch of the temple trust set up by the BJP-led federal government.

It has raised uncomfortable questions for the party ahead of the state elections in Uttar Pradesh expected around February to March 2027.

“Given that the BJP spearheaded the campaign to build the temple and has also claimed credit for it, critics are asking why the blame for wrongdoings there should not go to them as well,” said Shashi Kant Pandey, a professor of political science at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in the state’s capital, Lucknow.

Modi had announced the creation of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Parliament in February 2020 and 12 of its 15 members were nominated by the BJP-led government.

While members of the trust do not include representatives from the BJP, they feature members from right-wing Hindu groups with close connections to the party, besides serving bureaucrats from the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh state government.

Nripendra Misra, a retired bureaucrat who served as the principal secretary to Modi from 2014 to 2019, is also a member of the trust.

“Given all these links, the BJP has found it difficult to disassociate itself from the whole controversy,” Pandey told The Straits Times.

“It would be in the party’s interest to conduct a transparent inquiry and take stern action against the guilty,” he added, “because the opposition will make every effort to capitalise on this issue.”

In recent weeks, rumours swirled around the theft of donations made to the temple in the form of cash, jewellery, gold and silver.

In one particularly shocking claim, a Sindhi community organisation has sought details of the 200kg of silver – valued at around 48 million rupees (S$649,400) – that it had donated to the temple but for which no receipt was given.

The Ram Temple draws around 100,000 people daily, with crowds surging further during weekends and festivals.

Most put their offerings in around 35 donation boxes placed around the sprawling site or give them at donation counters.

The persistent allegations of theft by staff at the temple, which have been amplified by opposition parties, forced the Uttar Pradesh state government to constitute a special investigative team (SIT) on June 13 to inquire into the matter.

Its report, which has yet to be made public, has been submitted to the government and eight people accused of siphoning off cash donated by devotees during the counting and handling process have been arrested.

The authorities have also recovered around 8 million rupees from them, but many suspect the extent of the theft could be much greater with senior individuals from the trust also involved.

The Uttar Pradesh government on July 1 gave the SIT a 15-day extension to probe the scam further.

One of the eight arrested include the driver of Champat Rai, general secretary of the temple trust and a leader who has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindutva organisation close to the BJP.

Rai and another member of the trust, Anil Mishra, have submitted their resignations on moral grounds. The trust will decide whether to accept their resignations at a meeting on July 11.

It added that it is “committed to ensuring a fair investigation and reassuring all devotees”.

Shocked Hindus say the thefts are a betrayal of their trust in the temple management and an affront to Hinduism.

“Even the theft of one rupee is a theft; here we are talking about crores,” Abhishek Pathak, an Ayodhya resident, told Newslaundry, an Indian online news platform.

“Nothing could be more saddening for Hindus and Ram devotees.”

So deep is the outrage that the bar association of Faizabad, the district in which Ayodhya is situated, announced on June 29 that none of its members would represent the eight arrested in the alleged embezzlement case. Any lawyer representing the accused will be fined 500,000 rupees, it added.

But how this public anger will affect the outcome in the forthcoming state elections depends on multiple factors, including whether there are further revelations of damaging details that could hurt the BJP, and how well opposition parties are able to exploit this issue.

“The BJP will pay a price only if the opposition is able to take this issue to town and tell people that what’s happened is nothing but loot,” said Sharat Pradhan, a senior political commentator based in Lucknow.

“Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi have to be on their toes and keep the tempo going for the next seven to eight months,” he added.

Yadav is the president of the Samajwadi Party (SP), a key political force in the state, and Congress Member of Parliament Gandhi is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lower House or Lok Sabha.

During the 2024 General Election, Uttar Pradesh – a state with 80 of the 543 elected Lok Sabha seats – delivered a surprise.

It was the SP that emerged as the single largest party with 37 seats, and its ally, the Congress, won another six seats, marking a significant shift in the state’s political dynamics. The BJP, on the other hand, won 33 seats.

Close to 50 per cent of people surveyed in a recent Cvoter snap poll said that the temple theft allegations, if proven true, would negatively impact their opinion of the Uttar Pradesh state government.

Pandey noted other issues of concern to the voters, including unemployment and the rise in prices that followed the recent war in the Gulf.

“The opposition has many things (going in its favour), but it all depends on how they put their house in order and capitalise on them,” he added.

Both SP and Congress, as well as other opposition forces such as the Aam Aadmi Party, have latched onto the controversy to attack the BJP.

Yadav, in a press conference on July 1, said the temple scandal had “exposed the BJP”. “Lord Ram himself has revealed their (the BJP’s) true face and shown the country the right direction,” he said.

Somewhat rattled, the Uttar Pradesh state government prevented a delegation of Congress leaders, including MPs, from visiting the temple on June 30, placing its members either on house arrest or detaining them before they could reach the city.

“Why are these ‘offering thieves’ – those who are involved in land scams in Ayodhya and steal offerings – afraid of Ram devotees coming there?” noted Ajay Rai in a post on X.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress president was part of the delegation and was detained in a guesthouse in the city. The nine-member delegation was later escorted to the temple by local police.

Modi has yet to speak publicly on the alleged theft, but Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has targeted opposition parties, accusing them of developing “faith suddenly” in Lord Ram after having allegedly opposed the Ram Temple movement.

Anyone found guilty of stealing from the temple would not be spared, he added.

The police, however, have not named Champat Rai or any other senior official from the trust in their complaint, leading many, including political commentator Pradhan, to allege a cover-up.

He noted that if senior officials from the trust are found guilty, it could cost the BJP dearly, especially if opposition parties can exploit the issue effectively.

“This is the best opportunity for the opposition to nail the BJP, which is already on the back foot,” added Pradhan.

“For the first time in 12 years that Modi has been in power, they’ve got an opportunity to pin the BJP down on the mat.”