India's Congress party alleges theft of funds at controversial religious site

ISLAMABAD: India's main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, on Wednesday questioned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party about allegations that donations were missing from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which manages the Ram Mandir in the northern city of Ayodhya.

The political dispute follows reports that approximately 70 million Indian rupees ($736,374) in cash and offerings had gone missing from the trust, according to The Hindu. Former employees and security personnel raised concerns about procedures inside the facility where donations are counted.

Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh registered a criminal case and arrested eight people associated with the counting operations, according to The Hindu. The state government formed a three-member panel to examine the allegations.

The general secretary of the trust, Champat Rai, has claimed it follows standard accounting procedures and conducts regular audits, as reported by The Wire. The criminal investigation and arrests relate to reported irregularities in the handling of donations.

The Ram Mandir, a Hindu temple inaugurated in 2024, was built on the site of the 16th-century Babri Mosque, which Hindu nationalist activists demolished in 1992.

The temple has become one of the BJP's most prominent political and religious projects, following a decades-long campaign by the party and its ideological affiliate, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to build the shrine.

BJP prevents Opposition members from investigating
In a post on X, Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal said the BJP and the RSS had centered their politics on Ayodhya and the Ram Mandir for three decades and questioned why the party had not publicly addressed allegations concerning temple donations.

"For years, their (BJP-RSS) politics has revolved around polarization: Hindu versus Muslim. For 30 years, they focused on Ayodhya and the Ram Mandir. But today, with the misuse of temple donations coming to light, why are they silent? If they claim to speak for Hinduism, then they must answer these questions. The BJP should come clean on the Ayodhya temple trust," Venugopal wrote.

The allegations follow an attempt by the president of the Congress party's unit in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, to lead a nine-member delegation to Ayodhya. According to NDTV, the group planned to offer prayers at the Ram Mandir before holding a news conference calling for greater financial transparency from the trust.

NDTV reported that police officers were deployed outside Rai's residence and the delegation's accommodations, preventing the delegation from traveling to Ayodhya. Police said the restrictions were imposed due to law-and-order concerns and security protocols surrounding a sensitive religious site.

Congress leaders said the visit was intended to seek accountability regarding the trust's finances while offering prayers at the temple. Police said the restrictions were “necessary” to maintain public order.

Congress calls for inquiry
India's Prime Minister's Office has reportedly requested a report from the trust regarding the allegations. Opposition parties, led by Congress, have called for an independent investigation into the handling of temple donations.

The controversy has attracted political attention because the Ram Mandir has played a central role in the BJP's political messaging for decades, as documented in official party archives and manifestos, including the BJP Palampur Resolution Text and the BJP Ram Rath Yatra Archive.

Congress leaders, such as Rashid Alvi, argue that the governing party should publicly respond to questions regarding the trust's finances in light of the criminal investigation and arrests, as reported by India Today.

The trust has maintained that established accounting procedures remain in place while the investigation continues, Dainik Bhaskar, among other local news outlets, reported.

Governance of religious institutions in India under scrutiny
The allegations are the latest in a series of controversies involving the governance of religious institutions and heritage sites in India.

Several major Hindu temples have faced investigations involving financial management and administrative oversight.

In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) became the subject of investigations into reported irregularities in the procurement of ghee for preparing the temple's sacred offering of sweetmeats to devotees, as reported by The Times of India. TTD administers the Venkateswara Temple, one of the world's wealthiest and most visited Hindu pilgrimage sites.

Investigative agencies examined allegations that procurement procedures had been bypassed and that adulterated products had entered the supply chain.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust itself also came under political scrutiny in 2021 over a land purchase in Ayodhya, as reported by The Hindu. Opposition parties questioned a transaction in which public land records showed property being bought by private individuals before being sold to the trust at a substantially higher price shortly afterwards.

Questions over the administration of Hindu temples have also extended beyond individual trusts.

Audit reports, court proceedings and government reviews in several Indian states, including Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, have highlighted allegations involving encroachment on temple-owned land, administrative lapses and disputes over the management of temple assets overseen by state endowment boards, as heavily documented by The Print, among other local news outlets.

Historic temples have likewise faced scrutiny over the management of valuable donations and religious assets.

At the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the southern state of Kerala, reports submitted during proceedings before India's Supreme Court identified deficiencies in inventory and accounting systems for gold, jewellery and other valuables, as reported by BBC.

Claims about Muslim religious sites
Political debate in India has also been shaped by controversies involving claims about Muslim religious sites that were later challenged or rejected by public authorities.

In 2022, petitions alleging that the Taj Mahal, India's best-known Mughal monument, had originally been a Hindu temple and that sealed basement rooms concealed Hindu idols were rejected by the Archaeological Survey of India, Voice of America reported. The government agency said there was no archaeological evidence to support those claims and released photographs showing the chambers were structural spaces.

During a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in the northern town of Sambhal, viral social media posts claimed Hindu idols had already been discovered beneath the mosque, according to NDTV.

Local authorities and subsequent reporting said no such discovery had been made, while independent fact-checking organizations, such as Alt News and Logically Facts, described the circulating claims as false.

Another widely circulated image during legal proceedings concerning the Gyanvapi Mosque in the city of Varanasi was presented online as evidence relating to that dispute, CNN-News18 reported. Independent fact-checkers such as The Quint later identified the photograph as depicting a fountain located at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, a Sufi shrine in the western state of Rajasthan, unrelated to the Gyanvapi site.

There have also been fabricated online claims concerning Delhi's Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, as documented by ANI. These include rumors alleging the discovery of hidden tunnels, weapons or cash beneath the complex. Media fact-checking organizations like The Quint reported that no evidence supporting the allegations had been found.