A temple theft scandal has hit India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), perhaps where it hurts them the most. Devotees’ donations worth millions of dollars have allegedly gone missing from Ayodhya’s Ram Temple, the crowning glory of their Hindu nationalist project.
The grand temple, one of India’s most symbolically significant religious sites, has been built at a cost of approximately 19 billion Indian rupees ($210 million).
The investigation is ongoing, and authorities have not yet established the final amount allegedly stolen. Estimates circulating in political statements and media reports range from $21 million to $73.3 million, which differ substantially from the $0.2-0.3 million cited in police investigations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is already battling myriad scandals in the education sector. But the scam involving the Ayodhya Temple is special. It involves India’s most politically sensitive religious project. It involves organizations belonging to the Sangh Parivar, a family of Hindutva organizations led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological-organizational parent.
Modi inaugurated the newly built temple on January 22, 2024. He was present at the consecration of the temple as the mukhya yajman or chief devotee, with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat seated next to him.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust manages the Ayodhya temple. The majority of members on its board are associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the religious mobilization arm of the RSS.
Therefore, the scandal touches not only the political leadership of the RSS family but also its religious leadership. RSS leaders have repeatedly claimed that the Sangh was not formed for rewards or recognition, but for nation-building through tyag (sacrifice) and seva (service).
Opposition parties are not missing this opportunity to corner the RSS and the BJP. Ayodhya is in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, currently ruled by a saffron-clad, monk-turned-politician, the BJP’s Adityanath.
“The silence of the prime minister and the home minister is shocking,” said Jairam Ramesh, a senior leader of the Congress, India’s main opposition party. He took digs at the RSS, saying that they “try to give certificates to others for integrity, honesty and nationalism,” but have themselves “been caught in a most disgraceful and shameful manner.”
The Ayodhya dispute has shaped Indian politics for more than four decades. Political scientists have frequently described the Ram Temple movement as one of the defining episodes in post-independence Indian politics. It played a pivotal role in the rise of Hindu nationalists in India in the 1990s, especially in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state.
Spearheaded by two RSS family organizations — the BJP and the VHP — the movement involved the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. This 16th-century mosque stood at the present temple site. After a prolonged legal battle, the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that a Ram Temple stood at the place of the mosque.
While holding that the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid was an egregious violation of the rule of law, the apex court awarded the disputed land for the construction of a Ram Temple. The court said that archaeological evidence pointed to an underlying non-Islamic structure.
With the court clearing the way, the new temple was then built in less than five years. The temple trust has received $342.4 million through donations since 2020 and $62.2 million in devotee offerings between the January 2024 inauguration and March 31, 2026.
After the controversy snowballed in June, the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the corruption allegations. The police arrested eight persons, following which two of the trustees — Champat Rai and Anil Mishra — resigned. Rai is a vice-president of the VHP’s global wing, and Mishra is a senior RSS leader in Uttar Pradesh.
Understanding the gravity of the situation, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale called for the strictest punishment for those found guilty. He said the issue had “deeply hurt the sentiments and faith of the entire society and millions of Lord Ram’s devotees.”
He alleged that “anti-Hindu and anti-national forces” are seeking to malign the Hindu dharma by exploiting “this unfortunate incident” and requested patience and restraint from Hindu society during “this difficult moment” to thwart such “conspiracies.”
Hosabale said it is necessary to ensure that the faith and devotion of Lord Ram’s devotees in the Ayodhya temple remain unwavering and unbroken. “The prevailing confusion and uncertainty must come to an end.”
Opposition parties have slammed the RSS statement as a weak damage-control bid. The Congress party asked why Rai was not being arrested. Akhilesh Yadav, the chief of the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition in Uttar Pradesh, accused the BJP of lacking “sharam” (shame) and “dharam” (faith).
The BJP has decided to launch a counter-offensive on the opposition, questioning their moral right to question the temple’s affairs. Opposition parties had always opposed the Ram Temple project, Adityanath highlighted. He also asked why the opposition parties were silent on corruption regarding Waqf properties (Muslim religious properties) while blowing a single temple event “out of proportion.”
According to media reports on the investigation so far, the money was allegedly siphoned out through systematic theft of cash donations during the counting process. Some workers allegedly concealed currency notes in their socks, pockets and clothing before the temple offerings deposited in hundis (donation boxes) were officially counted.
Based on bank deposit patterns, the investigators reportedly suspect that approximately $6,290-$8,385 may have been diverted each day before the scandal came to light. They have so far recovered about $83,840 in cash.
The Ram Temple movement has remained one of India’s most politically polarizing issues, leading to several communal conflicts in different parts of the country. Different Hindu groups have claimed that it is the place where the Hindu deity Ram was born and a temple dedicated to him stood right at his birthplace. It was on the ruins of that razed temple that the Babri mosque was raised, they claimed.
The Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict relied heavily on the Archaeological Survey of India, which many critics say had been politicized after Modi’s ascent to power in 2014.
The Hindu nationalists had celebrated the victory in a big way. The RSS chief even called the temple’s consecration day India’s “true independence day” — implying that India’s political independence on August 15, 1947, was independence only in letter but not in spirit.
Now that the opposition parties are questioning the true nature of the RSS and the rest of the Sangh Parivar, the Hindu nationalists will have to work hard to protect their self-portrayed image of being selfless saviors of Hindus. There is urgency, as Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls next year.
