Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earned the reputation of being an effective communicator by virtue of his ‘bhashans’ from the podium, which claimed to attract millions. Over the years, he however also earned disrepute over his failure to speak up on matters of significance to the nation and instead indulging in speeches that have no connection with the present. His Mann Ki Baat radio programme itself is hardly engaging the informed sections. He rambles on and on about mundane topics that evince no serious public interest, while not speaking on contemporary subjects of national interest. His silence on important matters is deafening, as in the present case of the Ram Temple loot in Ayodhya. Shortly before the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge jointly addressed a letter to the PM, asking him to break the silence on the Ayodhya loot. As they have pointed out, it was the Modi government that formed the Ram Temple Trust, which eventually presided over this epic loot of “thousands of crores” from the temple.
The Ram Temple is no ordinary temple. It was erected with land given by the government and funds organised from Hindus all over the world. Even its bricks were collected from Hindu faithful, home to home. Every Hindu family in the Hindi-belt states and beyond contributed majorly for its erection. Devotees lined up by their millions to offer prayers and put their hard-earned money into the temple hundis, much of which has now been spirited away by the self-appointed guardians of faith. The resignation of the temple trust secretary, a close associate of the Prime Minister himself, at the very outset of the loot’s exposure in the media, showed his hands are not clean. He was either involved in the misappropriation or remained as a silent spectator, which though was unlikely. The Prime Minister took it upon himself to oversee the temple’s affairs by entrusting his trusted people, including mostly VHP-RSS functionaries, to stand in the forefront. Their collective greed took things to such a pass – and the prime minister is silent as a stone. He flies in and flies out of the controversies, with the same ease with which he landed in Ayodhya to oversee the consecration rituals.
There is no clarity yet as to how much funds from the temple chests have been siphoned off. Lord Ram himself was looted. This raises big questions on its linkages with politics. India as a secular nation had distanced its politics from religion until the BJP entered the scene with a bang in the 1980s and won power at the Centre and states by raising the bogey of Hindutva and cornering the minority Muslims in the name of the Ram Janambhoomi. The VHP, RSS and BJP leaders jointly oversaw the demolition of the dilapidated, uncared for Babri Masjid if only to raise Hindu frenzy and convert it into votes. While they succeeded in this, it is incumbent on them and more importantly the Prime Minister to break their silence over this epic loot, at least in the People’s Parliament.
