RSS-VHP ‘captured’ Ram Temple administration in Ayodhya: Ashok Gehlot

Published 7 July 2026 · local

The Congress on Tuesday (July 7, 2026) sharpened its attack on the BJP and the Sangh Parivar over the alleged theft of donations at the

The Congress on Tuesday (July 7, 2026) sharpened its attack on the BJP and the Sangh Parivar over the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, with former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accusing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of having “captured” the temple administration “in an unauthorised manner”. Gehlot alleged that the subsequent action was aimed at “whitewashing” the scandal rather than fixing accountability. He said the sequence of events — denial, constitution of a Special Investigation Team, registration of an FIR and then resignations — pointed to an attempt to contain the fallout while protecting those at the top. “The BJP-RSS have captured the temple administration in an unauthorised manner,” Mr. Gehlot told reporters.

“First they said nothing has happened. Then came the SIT (special investigation team), then the FIR, then the resignations. There is an attempt to whitewash the entire issue,” he added, leading the opposition party’s offensive a day after the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust accepted the resignations of its general secretary Champat Rai and member Anil Mishra. He said the controversy had punctured the moral and political claims of the Sangh Parivar on the Ram temple movement. “Unka asli chehra saamne aa gaya hai; unki chaal, charitra aur chehra sab desh ke saamne hai [The real face has been exposed. Their style of functioning, character and the face is now in front of the country,” he said. Gehlot argued that the BJP and the RSS for decades had reaped political dividends from the Ram Mandir issue but were now unwilling to answer for the alleged wrongdoing in an institution built on public faith and donations.

The Congress leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not remain silent on allegations of “chanda chori” in a temple project that the BJP had projected as the fulfilment of its ideological promise. Gehlot said Mr. Modi had taken full political ownership of the temple and must now explain what had transpired under a “double-engine government”. The party reiterated its demand that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust be dissolved and reconstituted with Shankaracharyas, saints, dharmacharyas and other religious representatives. ‘SIT lacks credibility’ It also called for an independent probe under the supervision of a sitting Supreme Court judge, saying the Uttar Pradesh government’s SIT lacked credibility, and demanded that a full account of all cash and material donations received for the temple be made public.