The alleged theft of donations from the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is set to dominate discussions at the RSS’s three-day annual Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak Baithak beginning in Karnataka’s Belagavi on July 10, with senior functionaries saying the controversy has emerged as the organisation’s most pressing concern.
While the meeting was originally expected to focus on contemporary national issues, including the ongoing Census exercise, Sangh sources told The Indian Express that the Ram Temple controversy was likely to overshadow other agenda items because of its impact on the RSS’s public image. The meeting may also discuss the fate of some RSS functionaries involved with Ram Temple operations.
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“While the Census, along with other contemporary issues in the country, will be discussed, the Ram Temple issue is obviously on everyone’s mind and it will be discussed in great detail. It has cast a shadow on the entire Sangh Parivar and all workers and senior office-bearers are likely to bring it up. The issue is creating a negative image of the Sangh among people and we need to arrest that slide,” said a senior RSS functionary.
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An RSS office-bearer from Uttar Pradesh went further, describing the controversy as more damaging than the “Hindutva terror” allegations levelled against the Sangh during the Congress-led UPA government’s years.
“When the UPA government accused the Sangh of Hindutva terror, nobody believed it. It was seen as a government campaign. But this one is hurting us in public perception. People think the Ram Temple and the Sangh are the same. Even if no one from the Sangh may be involved in the embezzlement, this is a controversy that will be hard to shake off,” the office-bearer said.
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What is this annual meeting?
The annual Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak Baithak, to be held from July 10 to 12 in Belagavi, is among the RSS’s most important organisational meetings.
It will be attended by prant pracharaks (province in-charges), sah prant pracharaks (joint in-charges for provinces), kshetra pracharaks (regional in-charges), and sah kshetra pracharaks (joint in-charges for regions) from all 11 organisational regions and 46 provinces, besides the all-India organising secretaries of 32 Sangh-inspired organisations. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, sarkaryavah (general secretary) Dattatreya Hosabale, all sah sarkaryavahs (joint general secretaries) and members of the organisation’s top executive are scheduled to participate.
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Besides reviewing organisational expansion during the Sangh’s centenary year, training programmes and plans, the participants are also expected to deliberate on “current national circumstances”, including the Census.
Damage control
The development assumes significance because the RSS on Friday issued its first formal statement on the Ram Temple controversy, nearly a week after the allegations surfaced. In the statement, Hosabale described the alleged theft from the donation boxes at the temple as an incident that had “deeply hurt the sentiments and faith of the entire society and Ram devotees” and said the organisation was “extremely pained and angered” by it.
The statement said the Uttar Pradesh government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the request of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and stressed that “anyone found guilty after the investigation faces severe punishment”. It also said the Trust should treat the incident as an “extraordinary matter”, remove shortcomings in temple management and operations, and ensure that the faith of devotees remains intact.
Calling for an end to the “current state of confusion and uncertainty”, the RSS said it expected both the temple management and the SIT to take all necessary steps to restore public confidence through transparent financial management and efficient administrative systems. At the same time, it appealed to Hindu society to exercise patience and restraint and not allow “anti-Hindu and anti-national forces” to exploit the controversy to malign Hindu society.
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The controversy erupted after allegations of theft from donation boxes at the Ram Temple led the Trust to seek a probe. The UP government subsequently constituted an SIT to investigate the matter. The episode has also triggered a wider row within the Sangh Parivar after senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and Trust general secretary Champat Rai came under attack from sections of the organisation over the handling of the issue, prompting the RSS leadership to publicly back an investigation while urging systemic reforms in the temple’s administration.
With the Ram Temple having become the most visible symbol of the Sangh Parivar’s ideological movement over the past several decades, senior RSS functionaries acknowledged that the controversy carries consequences beyond a criminal investigation and has become an issue of credibility for the wider organisation. Several leaders said they expect the Belagavi meeting to deliberate not only on the legal and administrative response but also on ways to contain the reputational damage caused by the episode.