Something is rotten in the land of Ram

On 19 June, Nripendra Mishra dropped a bombshell. In one of several interviews aired by TV channels on the day, Mishra, a member of the board of trustees for the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, also chairman of the Temple Construction Committee and former principal secretary to prime minister Narendra Modi, referred to stolen donation money in the Ayodhya Ram temple as ‘खुला डाका’ (daylight robbery). Not surprisingly, the Sangh Parivar is squirming.

But it seems not everyone in the Parivar is equally invested in the damage-limitation exercise that has started in the wake of the discovery of embezzlement — running into several crores according to some reports — and then the Mishra interview.

While the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust was constituted by the government, following the 2019 Supreme Court judgment in the Ram Mandir case, many of its trustees are from the tentacular Sangh Parivar and swear allegiance to it.

The temple, built at an estimated cost of approximately Rs 2,000 crore, donated by devotees from home and abroad, created quite a frenzy of excitement in this ecosystem — in the BJP, the militant Vishva Hindu Parishad, which spearheaded the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, big daddy RSS, which claimed centre stage during the ‘pran pratishtha’ (consecration) ceremony (on22 January 2024) and of course very large numbers of devout Hindus. Even mainstream media was all aflutter — awash in banner headlines declaring a triumphant civilisational moment.

With all the media hype and government promotion, it is hardly surprising that the temple has received the kind of attention — and donations — it has. Which has verily tested the integrity of some of the people in charge. It would be a mistake to think it stops at the eight arrested by the Special Investigation Team.

Among those taken into custody are Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, a former driver and close aide of ex-trust general secretary Champat Rai, who reportedly held the keys to the temple’s cash-counting room; Manish Yadav, nephew of Tinnu Yadav, who was posted inside the temple’s cash-counting unit; Anukalp Mishra and Lavkush Mishra, relatives of former trustee Anil Mishra, both involved in the daily counting process.

Offerings reportedly spiked during the Maha Kumbh in January 2025, and in an executive committee meeting on 13 December 2025, the trust reportedly disclosed that it had received Rs 4,575 crore in donations and other receipts up to 30 November 2025.

The steady and systematic loot of donations was exposed by insider whistleblowers in the first week of June 2026. An accountant sacked by the trust in 2021, after he complained of accounting deficiencies, spoke out and claimed that the trust did not keep accounts of the gold, silver and jewellery donated. A group of Sindhis then claimed they had donated 200 silver bricks but never got a receipt.

Perhaps emboldened by these disclosures, the head priest of Janaki temple in Janakpur, Nepal, said he was still in the dark about what happened to the precious metal donated to the trust.

It’s hard to explain how donations could be embezzled over such an extended period despite elaborate security, including surveillance by an estimated 1,600 CCTV cameras, and the counting of cash donations entrusted to the State Bank of India. Trust secretary Champat Rai initially tried to make light of the ‘theft’ but resigned when the scandal threatened to spin out of control.

The trust was forced to acknowledge that with the help of the police Rs 80 lakh was recovered from the houses of some employees. No FIR was lodged but the trust requested Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has filed an interim report.

According to sources in Lucknow, the preliminary SIT report estimates the amount swindled to be over Rs 200 crore. It is highly improbable that this scale of embezzlement went unnoticed by senior members of the trust and even by the PMO, which has been quite hands-on in the construction of the temple and management of the trust. Given this detail, and Nripendra Mishra’s proximity to the prime minister, it seems improbable that he didn’t have a tip-off, not even an inkling that something was amiss.

On paper, Mishra is chairman of the construction committee, but political observers say his job title does not indicate his span of influence. There is now intense speculation on the role of treasurer Govind Giri and former trustee Anil Mishra. While Champat Rai and Anil Mishra have resigned their posts, the final decision on their future is expected when the trust convenes on Sunday, 5 July.

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The scandal has surfaced at a bad time for the BJP. With Assembly elections due in Uttar Pradesh early next year, it gives the Opposition an opportunity to make this a campaign theme. From the BJP’s point of view, the political crisis must be defused soonest, and it appears from the current state of play that the responsibility to navigate the minefield has fallen on Yogi Adityanath.

Not a favourite of the BJP twosome in Delhi, it’s a mystery why the trust approached him to lead the way in the investigation. Yogi played no role in the construction of the temple and was quite noticeably a bit-player in the pran pratishtha extravaganza. Several observers of the temple movement in Ayodhya believe that Yogi would seize the opportunity to settle scores or use the scandal to his advantage in the tug of war with the Delhi duo.

“Since the temple was under the direct supervision of the PMO and the RSS, even if Yogi had knowledge of wrongdoing, he couldn’t have done much earlier,” says Ram Dutt Tripathi, senior journalist and former BBC correspondent in Lucknow. “But now that the scandal is public knowledge, the PMO and RSS want Yogi to manage the mess.”

“The Gorakhpur math Yogi heads was in the vanguard of the Ram temple movement since 1949, but he was completely ignored when the Ram Mandir trust was set up. During the pran pratishtha, Yogi was simply marking his presence. Now he will settle scores,” says Tripathi.

Suman Gupta, editor of Ayodhya-based Jan Morcha, does not believe a cover-up is now possible. “Local resentment was already high over outsiders controlling the trust. As infrastructure developed and land prices rose, the locals again found themselves losing out to outsiders.”

Sceptics doubt if the full extent of the scandal will ever be known, the money trail established, and the big fish made to pay a price. Others speculate that the scandal gives the PMO just the excuse it needs to tighten its grip even more on the management of temple affairs. Why else, they ask, would Nripendra Mishra suggest the appointment of a ‘professional CEO’ to manage the day-to-day affairs of the trust? Isn’t he echoing his master’s voice?

In private conversations, RSS functionaries admit the scandal has shaken the faith of millions and dented the image of the Sangh. But asked if the BJP will pay a political price, they affect unconcern. The consensus seems to be: ‘People will forgive and forget’.