Ram Ka Naam Badnaam Na Karo
By our team of in-house writers.
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First publised on 2026-06-26 11:48:45
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By our team of in-house writers.
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People Are Talking About the money that allegedly went missing from the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, the body that manages the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. People say crores of rupees in donations, offered by devotees with folded hands, were allegedly siphoned off by people entrusted with counting the cash. People say the counting appears to have included an accounting of what could quietly disappear.
People are also talking about what came before the arrests. They note that when the Samajwadi Party first raised the alarm about missing donations, the UP Deputy Chief Minister called it a "false narrative" and said the people of the state understood such politics. People say the people of the state did understand. They just understood differently.
People say eight people have now been arrested, an FIR has been registered, and the SIT has submitted its preliminary findings. People note that one of the eight accused is the former driver of the Trust's General Secretary, Champat Rai. People say they have heard of keeping trusted people close, but this is a different kind of trust.
People are talking about Champat Rai. They note that he spent years as the public face of the Ram Mandir movement, that he was at the consecration ceremony, that his name was synonymous with the temple. They note that he has now resigned. People say he resigned taking "moral responsibility." People say moral responsibility is a phrase that arrives only after eight arrests, an SIT report, and a CM's direct intervention. People wonder what it was called before that.
Ram ka naam badnam na karo, people say. Ram did not steal from his own home. The people entrusted with his home did.
People are also talking about what the Trust itself said when the controversy first broke. The Trust issued a statement saying that the rumours on social media were intended to tarnish the temple's image and hurt the sentiments of devotees. People say the sentiments of devotees were hurt, but not by the people raising the rumours. People say the sentiments of devotees were hurt by the people counting the cash.
People say a devotee travelled from far away, stood in a long queue, pressed a note into the donation box with both hands as an act of faith, and went home satisfied. .People say investigators believe some of those notes did not remain in the donation boxes for very long. People say Ram ko bhi nahin choda.
People say the Ram Mandir was built on a movement that lasted decades and a Supreme Court verdict that is barely seven years old. People say faith took decades to build. Greed, if the allegations are true, needed much less time.
People are waiting to see whether the resignations of Champat Rai and Anil Mishra are the end of accountability or the beginning of it. People note the distinction. People say in this country the distinction rarely survives the news cycle.
People say they hope Ram is not watching. Then they say they are sure he is. They say that is the problem.
Ram ka naam badnam na karo, people say again. They are not sure who they are saying it to anymore.
The lead image is AI-generated
