If deemed necessary, the trust should be dissolved and reconstituted. The officers of the Trust must realize that they have failed to show the necessary seriousness, sensitivity and promptness in handling such an important matter.
The Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust meeting should not take a decision only on the resignation of General Secretary Champat Rai and Trustee Anil Kumar Mishra. The Trust should also take concrete decisions that remove any doubt and assure the public that the temple donations will be properly managed and accounted for in future. Such decisions are necessary because the incident of dowry theft has deeply hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community. Their faith and beliefs have been deeply hurt. To compensate for this, the trust should not hesitate to take even the most drastic decisions
If deemed necessary, the trust should be dissolved and reconstituted. The officers of the Trust must realize that they have failed to show the necessary seriousness, sensitivity and promptness in handling such an important matter. It is difficult to understand why the donation was canceled without any investigation after the theft was exposed. Likewise, why was no concrete initiative launched immediately for a high-level investigation? Indeed, there are not one but many questions that bedevil the Trust officers and their working style. A decision on the resignation of General Secretary Champat Rai and Trustee Anil Kumar Mishra was also delayed. Why was the meeting not convened as soon as possible after these two persons resigned?
There are good reasons to believe that some officers of the Trust had acquired excessive powers and were acting on their own accord. Similarly, there are good reasons to conclude that not all officers of the Trust were equally active, and some, for various reasons, remained inactive or aloof. As various allegations keep surfacing, the way the Special Investigation Team is probing the donation theft case is far from satisfactory.
These allegations are tarnishing the trust’s image. As the donation theft scam has grabbed national attention, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), BJP, as well as the central and state governments should investigate to see if the truth comes out. The need is not only to ensure proper accounting of the donations of devotees, but also to establish a system to determine the purposes for which the donations will be used.
