Broken trust in temple fraud

Systemic lapses flagged by the SIT probing the siphoning of Ram Temple donations cast a shadow on the competence of temple trustees

A report from the special investigation team (SIT) exonerating two prominent former functionaries of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust might bring relief to the individuals but the systemic lapses flagged by the probe are a matter of grave concern and raise questions about the competence of the people managing one of India’s most important shrines.

Any scandal connected to the Ram Temple insults millions of people whose faith is tied to the shrine. The SIT report should pave the way for deeper investigation and introspection, not be used as a fig leaf to elide responsibility. (AFP/Press Information Bureau (PIB))

The report by the SIT — one of two looking into allegations of irregularities in the Ram Temple donation collections — found gross lapses in the trust’s functioning, an absence of adequate checks or professional financial management and inadequate supervision at multiple levels. Damningly, the SIT found there was no dedicated finance and audit cell, no standard operating procedure for collection agents and inadequate reconciliation between donation receipts issued and money deposited. Clearly, even the basics of fiduciary responsibility were thrown to the wind, creating an opaque system where ad-hoc decisions and personal favours masqueraded as systems and processes, making the whole operation vulnerable to dubious actors.

The SIT named Ram Shankar Yadav, an aide to former trust general secretary Champat Rai, as the mastermind and blamed the eight men who have already been arrested. The report detailed specific bank accounts and shell entities allegedly used to layer the transactions and noted that some of the money was used to buy agricultural land and commercial plots. But most of these men were small-time players whose hires were overseen by trust members — some of them were even related to former trust members. How could they erect such a sophisticated operation without anyone noticing? Were the trust elders asleep at the wheel? Why didn’t they declare any conflict-of-interest while hiring people they knew? Why wasn’t professional management brought in at the beginning? It is not enough to just admit that mistakes were made, accountability must be fixed.

This newspaper has noted before that any scandal connected to the Ram Temple insults millions of people whose faith is tied to the shrine. It is good if no trust member was personally involved in the misappropriation but they cannot evade culpability for systemic lapses. The SIT report should pave the way for deeper investigation and introspection, not be used as a fig leaf to elide responsibility. The reforms currently underway in the trust should be sped up. And the second SIT set up by the Supreme Court should strive to fix accountability and ensure such sordid saga is never repeated.