Devotion to Deception: Ram temple theft scandal could redraw UP politics

By defending devotees rather than attacking the temple, the Opposition is turning the Hindutva milestone of the temple’s construction into an emotive anti-corruption narrative.. While the RSS tirelessly preaches that public behaviour, conduct, and character (chaal, chalan aur charitra) should be spotless, their behaviour in Ayodhya has been derelict, their conduct malfeasant, and their character dishonourable.

Bharat Bhushan

The Ram temple theft at Ayodhya has shown up the utter ineptitude of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in running institutions. It has also damaged the credentials of its protégé, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Fissures are opening within the BJP with Yogi Adityanath signalling that responsibility for embezzlement lies elsewhere.

While the RSS tirelessly preaches that public behaviour, conduct, and character (chaal, chalan aur charitra) should be spotless, their behaviour in Ayodhya has been derelict, their conduct malfeasant, and their character dishonourable.

The RSS leaders who directly controlled the Ram Mandir Trust chose to stay silent for a month after they came to know of the theft. When forced to speak, the RSS warned against allowing “anti-Hindu and anti-national forces” to exploit the controversy. It is the height of chicanery to describe those raising questions about the theft as anti-Hindu, while the RSS leaders under whose charge the temple funds were stolen still claim to be champions of Hindus.

Like RSS functionaries at the temple site, the BJP leaders are also keeping quiet, hoping the controversy will blow over.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lost no opportunity to claim political mileage from the Ram temple projecting himself as the main ‘yajman’ or ‘ritual patron’ of the temple, has maintained radio silence about the theft. Instead of public reassurances, he has left the Adityanath government to limit political damage.

Adityanath has done this in his own way — distancing himself from the theft, by constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The theft of donations now appears as someone else’s problem — of those who created the trust and appointed its members — namely, the prime minister.

Yet as the Opposition intensifies its attack, he must shield his own government’s credibility. To this end, he has begun massive religious polarisation, painting Opposition leaders as ‘anti-Ram’, claiming that those now asking questions once ordered police to fire on Ram’s devotees. Posters have appeared showing Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav with the slogan ‘Dil mein Babar, munh mein Ram’ (Babar in the heart, Ram in the mouth). He has also falsely accused former Samajwadi Party and Congress governments of committing a ‘sin’ by allowing namaz on the steps of Hanumangarhi Temple in Ayodhya.

As UP’s electoral politics heats up, how might the scandal affect the Assembly polls? If voters extend their acceptance of rampant corruption in India to temple funds, its impact will be minimal. But if they distinguish between embezzlement of sacred funds from misappropriation of public funds, the picture could be quite different.

Reports claim a leaked internal RSS-BJP survey shows that if UP elections are held in the shadow of the scandal, the BJP’s projected seats would fall to 180 out of 403 — far below its previous majorities of 312 in 2017 and 255 in 2022. A separate survey by Vote Vibe for News9 in July found that 64.4% of respondents believed the theft will impact the 2027 UP polls, while only 17.7% said it will not, and 17.9% remained undecided.

The highest perceived impact was in Bundelkhand, where 78.4% of respondents thought the controversy would affect the polls. Besides being economically distressed, Bundelkhand is tied to folklore around Lord Ram, and its poor but intensely religious inhabitants — who donated from scarce savings — would be greatly distressed by the theft, potentially turning indignation into anti-establishment anger.

In Awadh, where Ayodhya is located, disillusionment is high as locals experience administrative failures first-hand. In Poorvanchal, where the BJP has dominated electorally, observers believe the narrative of systemic institutional corruption may help the Opposition breach the alliance cobbled under the Hindutva umbrella between the BJP’s non-Yadav OBC and Dalit sub-castes. The lowest perceived impact, at 31.6%, was in Western UP, where the agrarian population prioritised sugarcane prices, development, and law-and-order over theft.

While 55.7% of respondents expressed confidence in the SIT, more than a quarter distrusted it, and 58.5% felt the Opposition had the right to ask questions about the theft. A separate C-Voter survey found that 50% of UP respondents believed proven theft allegations would negatively impact the Adityanath government — 57% of them Opposition supporters and 44% BJP-NDA supporters. About 58% of Gen-Z respondents (18–24) agreed, rising to 60% among Scheduled Castes.

Nationwide, the C-Voter survey showed over 80% of respondents — across caste, religion, gender, political leaning and age — wanted greater transparency in donations to religious institutions like the Ram temple, though 44% doubted a credible investigation would occur.

The Opposition will clearly weaponise ‘faith vs corruption’ both in Parliament’s Monsoon session, and ahead of the UP elections. By defending devotees rather than attacking the temple, it is turning the Hindutva milestone of the temple’s construction into an emotive anti-corruption narrative — aiming to neutralise the BJP’s monopolistic claim over Hindu voters by fracturing core voter loyalty over its failure to protect them and the deity from ‘corruption’. This could affect BJP-favouring voter turnout and even shift allegiances among upper-caste voters.

The scandal could potentially also break sub-caste and inter-caste coalitions that benefit the BJP now. It also helps the Opposition highlight regional and caste disparities in how the temple trust, dominated by upper castes, was managed under the BJP.

The Opposition is also questioning the state government’s probe and demanding a Supreme Court-monitored judicial investigation to hold the Ram temple Trust’s core leadership accountable — arguing that the prime minister who handpicked the trustees, must bear responsibility.

The Opposition campaign can dent the ‘clean governance’ brand of the Adityanath government, which claims to be unaware of the systematic theft at a globally prominent religious site. His narrative of administrative competence and strict law and order will suffer.

The BJP acknowledges the theft but calls it a localised event, with the RSS alleging a larger conspiracy by ‘anti-Hindu, anti-national’ forces to divide Hindu society (ahead of the UP polls). Yet since the Ayodhya temple was central to the RSS and the BJP’s rise to political power, it is doubtful people will accept that the breach was merely local and routine. The scandal could affect public support for the controversial Hindutva claim for a temple at Krishna Janmabhoomi site in Mathura, backed by Adityanath.

https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/devotion-to-deception-ram-temple-fund-theft-scandal-could-redraw-up-politics-ahead-of-2027-polls-4076865

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