Ayodhya Temple donation theft will have long-term consequences for the Sangh Parivar
The arrest of eight people in connection with the alleged embezzlement of donation money at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is an event with repercussions
The arrest of eight people in connection with the alleged embezzlement of donation money at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is an event with repercussions both within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-led Sangh Parivar and outside it, especially with the Assembly election due in Uttar Pradesh early next year. The most obvious repercussion for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar is, of course, the loss of a moral high ground. The Ramjanmabhoomi movement catapulted the BJP to power, and the RSS and its frontal organisations closer to their ideological goal of cultural nationalism around the Hindu religion. The sordidness of the embezzlement issue has led to questions about the integrity of those who spearheaded the movement to build the Ram Temple in place of the Babri Masjid. This is despite the fact that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, and the working president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Alok Kumar, were among the first to demand the filing of a First Information Report in the matter.
Hindutva and its advocates will have to come up with answers to questions that are becoming inconvenient by the day — on who knew about the wrongdoing and to what extent — even if they were not involved in the actual embezzlement. With Assembly elections due from early next year, the BJP will have swiftly investigate, identify and prosecute the wrongdoers in order to go into the polls with something to say on the issue. Within the Sangh Parivar, too, there appears to be a finessing of just who is to blame more. The Trust had a large presence of VHP personnel and those associated with the temple movement in the past. U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, although active during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, entered the fray not as part of the management but as someone asked to clear up the mess via governmental investigation.
This may appear to be a small difference to many but the differentiation will matter within the Sangh Parivar, giving more of a moral high ground to the RSS’s political wing, the BJP, which is otherwise required to express filial devotion to its parent organisation. The third big repercussion of the alleged embezzlement is the harm done to the long-term demand by certain sections of the right wing that the management of Hindu temples should be given over to private individuals or trusts. This was a demand that was made by many while comparing the management of religious institutions of other faiths in the country. Hindu shrines, especially in south India, have significant government supervision through Devaswom boards. In fact, in one of his interviews in the wake of the allegations of embezzlement in Ayodhya, Nripendra Misra, chairperson of the Trust’s construction committee, suggested that the running of the Ram Temple be on the lines of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, a statutory body of the Andhra Pradesh government to manage the Sri Venkateshwara Swamy Temple and other religious shrines attached to the main temple.
The BriefWire