India's temple trust reshuffles leadership after donation theft scandal

• Summary

• General secretary, trustee resign

• Opposition parties demand more action

• Millions of rupees recovered from donation-counting staff

• Temple is in bellwether state due to hold election next year

NEW DELHI, July 7 (Reuters) - A trust that runs India's grand Ram temple, whose consecration was ​led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024 after decades of controversy, has overhauled its leadership after ‌people involved in counting donations were accused of stealing millions of rupees in offerings.

The construction of the temple dedicated to the Hindu god-king Lord Ram on the site of a demolished mosque fulfilled one of the biggest promises of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which derives its support mainly ​from the Hindu majority.

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The alleged theft at the temple has provided the opposition with ammunition ahead of an election ​due early next year in bellwether Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, where the temple is ⁠located in the city of Ayodhya.

The temple site was bitterly contested for decades, sparking nationwide riots in 1992 that killed ​2,000 people, mainly Muslims, police say, after a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century mosque there.

'SHAMEFUL INCIDENT'

Trustees of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi ​Teerth Kshetra, set up by Modi's government to build the temple, met on Monday and said they accepted the resignation of General Secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra.

They appointed an interim secretary and a committee to identify candidates for a newly created position of chief executive.

The trust ​did not say how much money had been stolen, but authorities said following the arrest of eight people last month that nearly ​8 million rupees ($83,967) had been recovered from seven of them. Until March 31, the temple had received 5.82 billion rupees ($61 million) in offerings.

"This ‌donation theft ⁠is a very shameful incident for all of us," trust treasurer Govindadev Giri told reporters. "We all are hurt."

The Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, from which Modi's party emerged, has urged Hindus to be patient and restrained to "foil the conspiracies of anti-Hindu, anti-national forces who seek to exploit this unfortunate incident to malign Hindu dharma and society".

OPPOSITION CALLS ON MODI TO SPEAK UP

Opposition parties ​have asked for the trust ​to be dissolved and Modi ⁠to speak up on the issue. The prime minister, whose party has ruled Uttar Pradesh since 2017 but did poorly there in the national election in 2024, is on a tour of ​Indonesia from where he will fly to Australia and New Zealand.

"The country does not need ​piecemeal resignations," Congress ⁠party spokesperson Pawan Khera said. "It deserves a complete dissolution and overhaul of the trust, and every one of its members must face an independent, Supreme Court-supervised investigation."

Modi's BJP has accused the opposition of being opportunistic in attacking the government over the theft.

Hindus say the ⁠site is ​the birthplace of Lord Ram, and was holy to them long before Muslim ​Mughals razed a temple at the spot to build the Babri Masjid, or mosque, in 1528.

The Supreme Court handed the land to Hindus in 2019, ordering ​that Muslims be given a separate plot.

($1 = 95.2750 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Alex Richardson

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Krishna N. Das

Thomson Reuters

Krishna is the editor for politics and general news in India. He was a member of teams that won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards in 2024 for Reuters coverage of the global toxic cough syrup scandal, in 2018 for the Rohingya refugee crisis and in 2017 for the Bangladesh Bank heist. He served as Malaysia bureau chief in 2019 and 2020 before returning home.

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