In Ayodhya, it’s Sangh Parivar vs Sangh Parivar as Ram temple fund ‘theft’ charges blow up
· Scroll
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Dharam Das is one of the most powerful seers in Ayodhya.
In 1949, his guru planted an idol of Ram inside the Babri Masjid, breathing new life into a dispute over the 16th century mosque.
Das was a litigant in the contestation over the place of worship for nearly four decades. The movement, which fuelled the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Indian politics, ended with the destruction of the mosque by a Hindutva mob in 1992.
In 2024, a grand Ram temple was built over the ruins of the mosque, marking a victory for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
But two years later, the temple is at the centre of allegations of grave financial irregularities and theft.
“All the sadhus here are upset,” Das, now in his seventies, told Scroll. “The prime minister needs to give this his attention.”
The target of Das’s ire is the trust created by the Narendra Modi government in 2020 to build the temple on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Opposition leaders and a whistleblower have claimed that cash and jewellery offerings made by devotees have been swindled by the temple staffers under the trust’s watch. A special investigation team formed by the Uttar Pradesh government is inquiring into these allegations. However, a first information report is yet to...