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The theft of offerings at the Ram temple which stands on the site of the demolished Babri Masjid, which was built with the aid of judicial manipulation and the coercive power of the state – has become a national issue. Corruption in this one temple is being presented as a betrayal of the faith of the entire Hindu community.

Yet amid all the outrage, hardly anyone is willing to say that the very construction of this temple was itself a deception practised upon religion and faith; that this is a temple which will never be remembered for upholding truth; that behind it lies an entire history of falsehood, crime and violence; that it stands both as the result and the symbol of perhaps the greatest fraud perpetrated upon the minds and hearts of Hindus. We shall return to that larger question. Let us first consider the controversy now before us.

The Congress, along with almost the entire opposition, has held the prime minister responsible for the corruption uncovered at the Ram temple built on the land of the Babri Masjid. They have also demanded answers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The BJP, the RSS and the media that speaks for them, on the other hand, are trying to confine the controversy to those directly entrusted with managing the temple offerings. The prime minister, who rarely misses an opportunity to speak on any matter, has chosen silence.

Also read: Ram Temple ‘Theft’: SIT to Question Trust Members, Hindu Mahasabha Asks President to Dissolve Trust

Within the Hindutva fraternity itself, rival factions have begun throwing mud at one another and exposing each other’s secrets. They insist that the issue is not merely the theft of donations. They allege that corruption in the construction of the temple itself, as well as fraud in land transactions connected with it, involves powerful figures associated with the RSS and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

The carefully cultivated image of the RSS as an organisation of austere and upright men has begun to crack, for its functionaries have played the central role in the administration of the temple.........

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