Continuing with its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh over the massive theft of donations from Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the Congress today said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot escape responsibility since he took credit for everything. “When you sidelined everyone else, including the Shankaracharyas to exclusively claim credit for everything, now you cannot remain silent”, said Congress spokesperson and Chairperson of the AICC’s Social Media and Digital Platforms, Ms Supriya Shrinate while addressing a press conference at the Congress Bhawan here today.
Ms Shrinate was accompanied by the Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and other party leaders. Ms Shrinate said that this was not merely a theft or dacoity, but a brutal attack on the faith and trust of crores of Hindus who donated their hard earnings to the temple.
She revealed that 70 thefts had taken place within 40 days and this had never happened in history. The BJP and the RSS people have even left behind Gaznavi, she remarked, adding that the BJP and the RSS had committed a cardinal sin and they were a blot on the Hindu religion.
She said, they only use the name of Lord Ram for votes and dividing people. The senior Congress leader questioned the choice of the head of the Special Investigation Team, Vijay Vishwas Pant, who himself was facing FIR in a case of fraud.
“They couldn’t get anyone better”, she remarked, adding, even the SIT report was not made public. She asked, why were the trust general secretary Champat Rai Bansal and his colleague Anil Mishra left out.
She said, mere resignation was no answer and why were they left out just with resignations. Questioning the role of Champat Rai, she asked, why did he need to hire a private security agency owned by a former BJP MP for a huge sum of Rs one crore per month, when the UP Police and the central security forces were already posted at the Ram Temple.
She also took a dig at the appointment of Bajrang Lal Bagra to replace Champat Rai, who had not been cleared by the CVC for the appointment of the Chairman of NALCO. “Couldn’t they find anyone better from 145 crore Indians?” she asked.
The senior Congress leader also questioned the role of the trust treasurer Govind Giri who claimed that he was not living in Ayodhya and would depute a person for five days a month to see the accounts. “Is this the sense of responsibility these people have?” she questioned, adding that they had no respect for the faith of crores of Hindus.
Ms Shrinate said that the trust was constituted and its members were chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their only qualification was that they were from the RSS. She also raised several questions and sought their answers from the government.
She asked why has the Ram Mandir Test been exempted from the RTI and why was the offer of free supply of stone for the temple rejected. She said the L&T had offered to construct the temple on a token amount of Re one and this was also rejected for obvious reasons, as that would not have allowed any chance for financial manipulations.
Ms Shrinate noted that bungling and embezzlement had started from day one when Champat Rai had purchased Rs 2 crore land for Rs 18 crores.