Theft at Ram Temple is betrayal of public trust. Reform must follow

When burglars break in, owners are not punished. The same should apply to the functionaries of the Ram Temple Trust, except demanding corrective measures

The controversy surrounding the theft of offerings by some staff members of the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple at Ayodhya disturbed every right-thinking person in the country. Temples are sacred spaces and offerings are not just donations but a personal bond between the deity and the devotee. Ayodhya has a special place in the hearts of crores of Indians, given the 500-year-long struggle that preceded its restoration. That intense emotional attachment to the Ram Temple, manifested in the grand celebrations witnessed during the consecration ceremony in January 2024, led to great anguish over the news of theft.

There is another reason behind the public’s disquiet. The temple is being managed by persons connected with the Sangh Parivar, which enjoys an unblemished record of integrity, probity and discipline. Many offerings in the form of cash and kind are made at Ayodhya because of the trust that people repose in the Sangh Parivar. It is the breakdown of that trust that compounded the resentment of the people.

The Parivar leadership understood the severity of public resentment. Dattatreya Hosabale, the general secretary of the RSS, issued a strongly-worded statement calling for severe punishment for those found guilty. He also called upon the temple trust to ensure “proper financial management, flawless and transparent operational systems, and an atmosphere imbued with purity, sanctity and true dharmikata”. On its part, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust (SRJTKT), the body of saints and eminent citizens entrusted with the management of the temple, acted swiftly and handed over the investigation to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state government. The SIT has arrested a number of accused and has also questioned some of the senior functionaries of the Trust, including its general secretary Champat Rai, who has resigned. The Trust has accepted the resignation of Rai and trustee Anil Mishra, who were responsible for overseeing the day-to-day functioning of the temple affairs.

The RSS is not a registered trust, but its mammoth institutional structure runs on the principle of mutual trust and confidence among its functionaries. The SRJTKT is a registered trust, yet it needed a professional system in place to run the temple. The RSS functionaries involved in managing the Ayodhya temple seemed to have naively followed the RSS principle of trust alone. That their trust has been breached must have come as a rude shock and a crucial lesson. Champat Rai and Anil Mishra rightly took the onus for the mishap on themselves. To blame them for any kind of dishonesty or ill-intention will be unfair. Their failure lay not in their personal integrity but in their professional misjudgement of people and practices.

The Ram Temple attracts around 2 million people every month. It is as popular as other prominent temples like Tirupati and Vaishno Devi, which have developed efficient systems for crowd management, counting of offerings and pilgrim amenities. The Ram Temple Trust should have put similar systems in place. It has now decided that an executive officer would be appointed with sufficient powers to bring in order, transparency and professionalism in the temple’s functioning.

It must be borne in mind that even the best-managed temples like Tirupati faced complaints of embezzlement by staff, thefts in temple offerings and snatching of offerings out of donation boxes during peak hours. Some of these cases are being investigated by the CBI too. When such instances happen, the culprits are blamed and punished, but not the TTD trust. When burglars break in, owners are not punished. The same should apply to the functionaries of the Ram Temple Trust, except demanding corrective measures.

Temples like Tirupati and Vaishno Devi are managed by government-controlled trusts. But the Ayodhya temple is managed completely by an independent trust. The Sangh and affiliates like the VHP have always demanded that Hindu temples must be freed from government control and handed over to saints and eminent citizens. Ayodhya was showcased as an example. The lapses at the temple should not result in denying the right of the Hindus to administer their religious places. Instead, this is the best opportunity to develop a model by which the Hindus would continue to enjoy their rights while the governments may also play a limited role of oversight to ensure probity and order.

The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP