The Indian Armed Forces have always been depended on in times of crises, and, now perhaps for the first time, as leading temple governance. The Air Force’s pivotal role during the Kargil conflict has been brought out in sharp relief in the new OTT series, Safed Sagar, giving us a heady glimpse of how a squadron of committed pilots (known as Golden Arrows) refused to give up till they cracked their mission.
Presumably a coincidence, weeks later, the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has got a decorated Air Marshal as its first Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Jitendra Mishra is heading for a challenge that is daunting and potentially dangerous.
Temple Trust Hall of Fame
Like the Pakistan Army regulars disguised as infiltrators who took over Indian posts in 1998-99 and almost cut off India’s access to large parts of its territory, the Ram Temple has been hit by serious allegations of corruption and ‘chanda chori’ or siphoning of donations. Salvaging the temple’s reputation and restoring devotees’s trust would be a monumental challenge requiring maneuvers not dissimilar from the fiercest dogfights that Mishra may have faced in his career.
The other new inductees to the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust include dyed-in-saffron loyalists: Nirmala Yadav, a retired principal from a family in Shikhobad known for its Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) links; MM Pandey, a lawyer for one of the Hindu parties in the legal case of Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid matter; and, Delhi-based businessman Mahesh Bhagchandka, who's a staunch follower of Ashok Singhal, the former president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and one of the key faces of the Ram Temple agitation.
Continuity between the former Trust and this new one remains in Govind Giri, a seer who was the Treasurer during the period in which the construction budget was allegedly misappropriated and an as-yet-unknown amount of money and valuables stolen from the temple’s strong room.
He takes over as General Secretary from Champat Rai, whose fall from the giddying heights has been sudden and surprising. Mahesh Bhagchandka will take over as Treasurer.
In judicial custody is the cast of minor players all implicated either directly or through Champat Rai himself, who is making veiled attacks against Nripendra Mishra. Mishra, we will recall, was the head of the construction committee of the temple, which had costed well over Rs 1,800 crore, twice the building cost of the new Parliament in Delhi.
Jitendra Mishra would require not only immediate abatement of internal squabbling but also an overhaul of security and processes in the sprawling temple complex.
Turbulence Ahead
With its reputation nose-diving less than three years after a grand inauguration, the Trust—tied intimately to the RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Prime Minister Narendra Modi—faces turbulent weather ahead. The appointment of the CEO comes against the still pending inquiry which is being monitored by the Chief Justice of India.
It remains unclear as to what the latest Special Investigation Team’s (SIT's) report says about chanda chori. This opaqueness has raised more charges of lack of accountability, and potential cover-up. That Champat Rai was cleared of wrongdoing by the SIT strengthens such claims of protecting the powerful while sacrificing expendable characters like Avinash Shukla identified by the SIT as the key accused, Ram Shankar ‘Tinnu’ Yadav, and six others.
The massive construction work, including road-widening projects, and controversial land deals, along with gentrification of the traditional pilgrim ecosystem and economy, already cost the BJP the prized Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 elections. The seat went to Awdhesh Prasad, a Dalit leader from the Samajwadi Party. With elections in Uttar Pradesh due next year, the BJP is desperate to put the temple theft controversy behind as soon as possible.
Therefore, the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has done a cranking maneuver which involves flying away from the direct path of the enemy, by appointing a decorated senior officer from the Indian defence forces.
Defence forces are seen as the saviour during national crises, particularly disasters, large-scale communal violence, and of course, during existential external threats. With their reputation of honesty, neutrality and professionalism military personnel enjoy a higher status in our society which is ridden with corruption, cronyism, and divisions of all kinds.
Incomplete Representation
The Trust comprises 12 people, including three serving government officers, including two ex-officio members (one each from the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government), and the District Magistrate of Ayodhya. Nirmala Yadav would be the sole woman trustee of the Trust which still lacks a person from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It is ironic that it was a Dalit worker of the VHP, Kameshwar Chaupal, who symbolically laid the first brick of the Ram Temple in 1989.
But in the governing body of the temple carved with scenes from the Tulsidas's Ramayan, there is no representation from arguably the largest segment of Ram bhakts.
Former Air Marshal is to taking over as the CEO at a time when the sordid episode has brought global ignominy to the new temple while pushing back Ayodhya into the spotlight again. As he eases into the hot seat, he will have to both clear his sights, control his communications intelligence, and steer the temple away from politics. The stakes are high.
(Valay Singh is the lead at India Justice Report. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)