As the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust battles the gravest crisis of credibility since the Ayodhya Ram temple was inaugurated, it has reached for an age-old remedy: assemble the saints.

The trust has constituted a permanent nine-member religious committee comprising some of Hinduism's most eminent seers and scholars. On paper, it is a body meant to guide the temple's religious affairs. In practice, it also serves another purpose: lending moral gravitas to an institution whose own functioning is under intense judicial scrutiny.

The choice of chair is particularly striking.

The committee will be headed by trust treasurer Mahant Govind Dev Giri, who, when allegations of large-scale theft of devotees' donations first surfaced, insisted he had little knowledge of the temple's day-to-day financial........

© National Herald