Congress alleges Ram Temple donation scam, targets BJP-RSS over PM’s silence

Jairam Ramesh accused the BJP-RSS of orchestrating a major donation embezzlement scam linked to the Ram Mandir, demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe while criticising the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday launched a blistering attack on the BJP-RSS over the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, saying it is a “scam” perpetrated by their ecosystem on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are “totally silent”.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the BJP has a three-pronged strategy – “‘vote chori, seat chori, chanda chori”. He also lashed out at the RSS, saying its statement on the issue was “disgraceful and shameful”.

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“The ‘chanda chori’ has taken place which is absolutely beyond any doubt. The RSS statement is disgraceful and shameful. These are the people, who try to give certificates to others for integrity, honesty and nationalism, have been caught in a most disgraceful and shameful manner,” Ramesh told PTI Videos.

“Donations running into thousands of crores have been siphoned off. Of course, there should be an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge, of course the toughest action should be taken against all the accused but the silence of the prime minister and the home minister is shocking,” Ramesh said.

“We expect the prime minister, who took credit for building the Ram Temple and inaugurating it on January 22, 2024, just before the Lok Sabha elections, after which they ended up losing Ayodhya to make a statement. They have been completely silent,” the Congress general secretary in-charge communications said.

The BJP’s is a three pronged strategy: ‘vote chori, seat chori, chanda chori’, Ramesh said, in an apparent reference to the Congress’ earlier allegation of poll irregularities and the rejection of Rajya Sabha nomination of its Madhya Pradesh candidate Meenakshi Natarajan.

“Remember the electoral bond scheme. It was struck down by the Supreme Court. Hundreds of crores were collected – ‘chanda do dhanda lo’. So this whole ‘chanda business’ is part of the BJP’s DNA,” he said.

Ramesh asserted that the prime minister and the home minister must break their silence on the issue. “We all know that all those people who are part of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, they are part of the trust because they are trusted by the BJP-RSS. To think that the RSS did not know what is happening, to think that the PM and HM did not know what was happening, is beyond imagination. Everybody knew what was happening, this whole enterprise was a political enterprise and the donation, trust were part of that,” Ramesh said.

The Congress leader asked what Nipendra Mishra, who had been the principal secretary to the PM, was doing. “This is a tightly-locked, interconnected ecosystem. Nothing escapes the other’s attention,” he said.

Thousands of crores were collected from people and willingly many, including Congress leaders, gave donations and now it has been proven beyond doubt that there has been embezzlement on a massive scale, Ramesh alleged.

“This is a ghotala, a scam perpetrated by the BJP-RSS ecosystem in which the prime minister and the home minister are totally silent,” Ramesh said.

The alleged embezzlement came to light after an SIT constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government submitted its preliminary findings, following which an FIR was registered on June 25.

Eight accused were subsequently arrested, and police said nearly Rs 80 lakh in cash, besides some foreign currency, has been recovered so far from six of them. The investigation is continuing.