The Prime Minister’s Office seems to have prevailed over the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust and initiated the process of reviewing whether the Ram temple in Ayodhya requires a chief executive officer to manage its affairs.
The trust quickly formed a three-member committee after a three-hour meeting on Monday against the backdrop of donation theft and asked it to recommend three names for a CEO and examine whether such an administrative structure could better handle the management of the temple.
Although Nripendra Mishra, the chairman of the construction committee of the Ram temple and a former IAS officer known for his proximity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said a few days ago that there should be a CEO to manage the shrine’s affairs, trust president Nritya Gopal Das had rejected the idea and said there was no need to appoint a bureaucrat.
Govind Giri, the treasurer of the trust, said the committee comprised Pradeep Kohli, a retired judge; Vishnukant Chaturvedi, a retired lieutenant general; and Suresh Haware, a former chairman of the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust, which was formed by the Modi government in 2020, already has three serving IAS officers as its members — Shashank Tripathi, the district magistrate of Ayodhya; Prashant Lokhande, a joint secretary in the Union home ministry; and Sanjay Prasad, an additional chief secretary to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Lokhande and Prasad are ex officio members, as is Mishra.
Rajnish Singh, a BJP leader in Ayodhya, told The Telegraph: “I wrote to the PMO on June 9 suggesting that a senior officer should be appointed to maintain transparency at the temple. A team of officers from the PMO reached here the next day. The PMO has decided to consider appointing a CEO.
Indrakant Dwivedi, additional district magistrate (law and order), said the PMO had asked the local administration to prepare a report on the temple management. “Soon after, the SIT was formed and the inquiry was expedited,” he said.
Many sadhus in Ayodhya and other places have said appointing a CEO was a bad idea.
“Government officers controlling the Ram temple will not work. We run Hanuman Garhi, the biggest temple in Ayodhya, without a trust or a CEO.... The appointment of a bureaucrat will lead to more corruption at the Ram temple,” said Mahant Dhara Das of Hanuman Garhi.
Jitendranand Saraswati, a sadhu in Varanasi and a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, said: “Government officers want to take over temples. The government has captured over four lakh big temples in India.”
Swami Shaileshanand of Panchayati Akhara Mahanirvani said: “We had been assured by the Ram temple trust members that the issue of appointing a CEO would not be discussed at Monday’s meeting. But later on, the government imposed the agenda on them. The government wants to capture the temple now.”
A trust member said it was “difficult to fight with the government”.
Champat: Open book
Champat Rai, who resigned as trust general secretary last week against the backdrop of the donation theft, said on Tuesday that he would address the issue once the special investigation team completed its inquiry.
This is the first time Rai has commented on the fiasco. In a post on X, he said: “Many personal allegations have been made against me, but I am preferring silence at the moment. The primary report of the SIT, which was discussed at the trust’s meeting on July 6, has become public now even though it was confidential.
“My organisation (RSS) sent me to Ayodhya in October 1991 and my life as a Pracharak has spanned 45 years. I have been an open book.”