New Delhi: The Congress on Friday said the “clean chit” given by the RSS in the Ram temple donations “embezzlement” issue is “disgraceful and shameful” and a desperate damage control aimed at sanitising it.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh dubbed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a “fraudulent outfit”, while the opposition party’s media and publicity head, Pawan Khera, said the organisation is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
“The clean chit given by the RSS is disgraceful and shameful. The fact is ‘chanda chori’ on a large scale by people very much part of its network has taken place. It is a fraudulent outfit,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Khera tagged a video statement of RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on X and said it is “designed to protect the crocodiles while sacrificing a few expendable pawns”.
“The RSS is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Dattatreya Hosabale’s performative condemnation is not about exposing the loot of Ram Mandir funds. It is desperate damage control aimed at sanitising it.
“The video’s real purpose is to lend legitimacy to the UP government’s SIT — constituted even before an FIR was registered, functioning without making its report public despite the sensitivity of the matter, and designed to protect the crocodiles while sacrificing a few expendable pawns,” the Congress leader said in his post.
He said the “loot” of Ram temple funds has deeply hurt the faith of Hindus across the country. “But what adds insult to this injury is the RSS’s sudden outrage over the alleged theft of Ram Mandir donations,” he added.
Khera said the truth is that if the RSS was sincerely committed to safeguarding devotees’ donations, “embezzlement” on such a scale would never have taken place at a temple that is directly under its own watch.
“This is the real face of the RSS: Piety is a performance; plunder is the profession,” he said.
Hosabale said the “unfortunate incident of theft” from the donation boxes kept at the Ram temple in Ayodhya has “deeply hurt” the sentiments and faith of the entire society and Ram devotees.
“We are all extremely pained and angered by this event,” the RSS second-in-command said in a statement on X. It is the organisation’s first response to the alleged theft of funds that has led to the arrest of eight people as well as the resignations of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai and trustee Anil Mishra.
Asserting that “anti-Hindu and anti-national forces” are seeking to malign Hindu dharma by exploiting the “unfortunate incident”, Hosabale called on all Hindus to display patience and restraint to thwart such “conspiracies”.
It is natural for the entire Hindu society, including the RSS, to expect the trust to treat this “highly-condemnable” incident as an extraordinary matter and take effective steps to rectify all shortcomings in the management and operations of the temple, he added.
This, Hosabale stressed, is crucial to ensure that the faith and reverence of crores of Ram devotees in the Ayodhya temple remain unbroken and steadfast.
He noted that the Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and initiated legal proceedings based on its recommendations “at the earnest request” of the trust.
It is essential to ensure that anyone found guilty after the investigation faces severe punishment, he said, emphasising that the current “state of confusion and uncertainty” must end.
“At the earnest request of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and initiated legal proceedings based on its recommendations. It is essential to ensure that anyone found guilty after the investigation faces severe punishment,” Hosabale said.