Ram Temple Donation Theft Row: Speaker Satish Mahana’s ‘True Devotion’ Remark Sparks Political Storm | X @Iam_Sh05
Lucknow: A fresh political row erupted over the alleged embezzlement of donations at Ayodhya’s Ram temple after Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana said those whose offerings were stolen may not have donated with “genuine devotion”. The remark, made on Wednesday, drew sharp criticism from the Congress, Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties even after Mahana clarified that his comments were aimed specifically at Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who had demanded a refund of his donation.Mahana, a senior BJP leader, triggered the controversy while responding to allegations that donations collected at the temple had been misappropriated. He said that among the lakhs of devotees who contributed, only those who now claim their money was stolen perhaps did not offer it with true faith. The statement quickly went viral, with critics accusing him of insulting ordinary devotees and trying to shift focus from systemic failures to the intentions of donors.
Later, Mahana issued a clarification, saying his remark was not directed at common devotees but at Singh, who had raised the issue in a political context.
He offered to refund Singh’s donation and said the alleged theft should not be used to question the entire Ram Temple movement. However, the clarification did little to calm the opposition, which intensified its attack on the BJP and the temple trust.Congress leader Ajai Rai said the SIT findings into the donation scam were only the “tip of the iceberg” and reiterated their demand for a Supreme Court-monitored judicial probe and a forensic audit of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’s accounts from inception. Party leader argued that instead of putting devotees in the dock, the government should ensure a transparent, independent investigation and fix responsibility at all levels. Senior Congress figures also questioned why only lower-level staff had been arrested while senior functionaries of the trust remained untouched, and why central agencies like the ED, CBI and Income Tax department had not acted despite alleged large-scale irregularities. Samajwadi Party criticised Mahana for his remark, even after clarification.”The focus should be on the procedural and security lapses that enabled the theft, not on the faith of those who contributed,” Ashish Yadav said. SP leader described the comment as an insult to the sentiment of millions of Ram devotees and called for a time-bound, transparent investigation.Beyond UP, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray used the controversy to attack the BJP’s Hindutva credentials. He said the alleged embezzlement showed that the party had “betrayed Hindus” and played with their emotions, using religion for politics while failing to protect the sanctity of offerings. The BJP and its allies, however, defended Mahana and framed the issue as a politically motivated campaign. Party spokesperson Sanjay Chaudhary said that Mahana’s comment was specifically about Congress leaders trying to politicise the temple, not about ordinary devotees. He pointed to the grand scale and speed of the temple’s construction as proof that the vast majority of donations had been properly utilised, and said isolated instances of theft should not be used to tarnish the entire Ram Temple movement. The controversy comes against the backdrop of an ongoing SIT investigation into the alleged donation theft. The probe team has identified nine critical procedural and security lapses that collectively enabled the embezzlement, including failure to frisk counting staff, non-enforcement of pocketless uniforms, allowing personal items into the counting room, mixing cash from multiple hundis before counting, lack of denomination-wise records, and weak biometric attendance tracking. So far, eight individuals connected to the donation-counting process have been arrested in the case, while opposition parties continue to press for a broader judicial inquiry and greater accountability at higher levels of the temple trust.