Editorial with Sujit Nair | Ram Temple Donation Scam: Will Masterminds Be Arrested?

[00:00:00] For Heaven's Sake, Scamming a Temple? Scamming the Lord Himself? Are those 8 foot soldiers the culprit? So everything is going to be on their head and rest everybody is going to be out of it? Is Champatra involved? Is Mr. Anil Mishra involved? That is the question. Don't let carry it away when somebody comes and says we are the custodian of Hinduism, nobody is. They are the custodian of their own interest and when it comes to their own interest, they will follow that.

[00:00:34] Namaskar and welcome to another episode of Editorial. So today let's talk about the Ayodhya Ram Mandir donation scam. Now I'm sure a lot of us already know a lot of facts and figures and whatever happened in the donation scam. But today my intention is to present certain analysis of this entire event. That's my presentation, that's my editorial today.

[00:01:03] But all the same, I'm going to take you through quickly. I'll take you through what exactly happened. There were allegations of misappropriation of funds, especially by the opposition leader that is Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.

[00:01:19] So there were allegations of misappropriation of funds. The Uttar Pradesh government, the Yogi Uttar Pradesh government immediately instituted a SIT, a three member SIT. This SIT propped into this entire allegation and they too found that there is certain amount of truth in it. And they too said that there has been misappropriation at multiple levels, misappropriation of funds at multiple levels in Ayodhya Ram Temple.

[00:01:48] This is how the probe started and this is how the story starts. Then based on the probe of the SIT, there was an FIR filed against eight people and the eight people included Avinash Shukla, Lavkush Mishra, Anukalp Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Kuranesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Ram Shankar Yadav, Elias Tinu Yadav and Subhash Shivastava.

[00:02:17] Now Tinu Yadav, mind you, was the chauffeur to this gentleman called Champat Rai and this Champat Rai was the general secretary of the Ram Temple Trust. Now I say was because Champat Rai resigned. Champat Rai resigned taking moral responsibility. He washed his hand and he is now resigned. He resigned and so did another gentleman called Anil Mishra who was the member of the Ram Temple Trust. Both of them resigned.

[00:02:48] Now the question is, fair enough, there was an SIT which is good. There is also the fact that there was an FIR raised which is good. Eight people were arrested which is good. But the fact is, the question like I said is, are those eight foot soldiers the culprit? So everything is going to be on their head and rest, everybody is going to be out of it.

[00:03:10] Is Champat Rai involved? Is Mr. Anil Mishra involved? That is the question. And that is the question everybody is asking. Because end of the day, the way, normally, I don't say always, but normally the law works. Is, you know, the foot soldiers, you know, the lowest common denominators, they are put behind bars, matter closed. This is how it works. Is it going to be the same here too? That's the question.

[00:03:35] Mind you, before I begin or I start anything, let me tell you, a person is innocent until proven guilty. So all these are allegations. I have no right to say that somebody is innocent or somebody is guilty. I have no rights or none of my saying that somebody is guilty, somebody should be punished. I don't want to do that because I've seen a lot of it in media. So I've seen a lot of that in media, so I don't intend to do that. But that being said, let us understand the situation very clearly.

[00:04:01] The first point that I want to say is, look at who are these people, especially this Champat Rai and this Tinu Yadav and all of those people. Who are those people? They are all members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishat. And who is Vishwa Hindu Parishat? Vishwa Hindu Parishat are those people who claim to actually be the guardian, custodian of Hinduism in India. They are the people.

[00:04:30] You talk against them and you are called anti-Hindu the next day. You talk against them and possibly you will get people abusing you, trolling you the next day. Why? Because you are anti-Hindu and they are the custodian of Hindu religion. And here you are. Here you are. The most important event in Hindu calendar and not just, they say it, they say it the most important event in Hindu calendar, especially in this century, is supposed to be the Ram Janma Bhumi.

[00:04:58] And this is what they do to the Ram Janma Bhumi? The allegations are that they have taken money out of the donations people give to Lord Ram. And who do they belong to? Vishwa Hindu Parishat. What has Vishwa Hindu Parishat done? Have their bosses resigned? Have they said now, are they trolling? Are they coming out and saying, oh yeah, the anti-Hindu, anti-that, anti-this, you know, throw them out of the country.

[00:05:23] I hear if you speak something against Vishwa Hindu Parishat, you know, you've got a lot of right-wing people asking you to get out of this country, throw you out of the country, debar you from the country and all that. Why is Vishwa Hindu Parishat not talking about these guys? My point is, end of the day, love, respect, everything is well within the heart of a person. What they show out may necessarily not be what the reality is.

[00:05:49] If somebody speaks about love, somebody speaks about secularism, that doesn't make him or her anti-Hindu. Or if somebody goes and says, you know, I am going to give my life for Hinduism. I am going to give my life for Ram Mandir. I will cut my head, I will shave my mustache, all that if you say, that doesn't make you a hardened Hindu. This is the point that I am trying to make. Don't judge a book by its cover. Don't let carry it away when somebody comes and says, we are the custodian of Hinduism. Nobody is.

[00:06:17] They are the custodian of their own interest and when it comes to their own interest, they will follow that. But you have to understand it for your own interest. This is the lesson we learn from here. And that's the first point I want to make. Let's go to the next point. Have you noticed something? Political parties, politicians use an idol.

[00:06:48] There are political parties that have used Gandhi. There are political parties that use Nehru. There are political parties that tried to use Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Couldn't, but they tried. There are political parties that tried to use Nitaji, Shubhachandra Bose, Bhagat Singh. All these great iconic figures, political parties used. Likewise, Bharatiya Janata Party directly went in and they used Lord Ram.

[00:07:16] Lord Ram was the iconic, the all reverent iconic figure that Bharatiya Janata Party used. Now the interesting factor, you see all of this, be it Gandhi, be it Nehru. You think the people who actually use these iconic figures followed what a Gandhi said or what a Nehru said or what a Bhagat Singh said or what a Netaji Subhashandra Bose said? Nobody followed. They put photographs of Ambedkar.

[00:07:45] They put photographs of Shivaji Maharaj. They put photographs of Mahatma Gandhi. And they appeared to be following, idealizing these legends. And then end of the day, what they really did is they took their followers and let the legend be. Nobody was bothered about the legend. Are you getting what I am trying to say? Think about it. Let's take BJP's example. You know what Lord Ram stands for?

[00:08:12] Lord Ram stands for throwing out power. Throwing out power for his commitment. For his commitment to his father. He just rejected power. He walked out to jungle with his wife and his brother. He just rejected power. And what exactly is Bharatiya Janata Party doing it? Pray tell me. Breaking political parties. Getting political parties to decimate. And then coming into power. Absolutely ruling.

[00:08:40] What exactly are you idealizing? And what exactly are you doing? Do you see a difference? So what you do is you take the followers of Lord Ram. But you don't follow what Lord Ram tells you. You do what you want. Once you take the, you idolize Lord Ram, take the followers of Lord Ram and then you go your own way. And this like I told you. And I don't want to sound balancing and all that. But I don't do that. So let me be very clear about that.

[00:09:07] I feel that every politician and every political party is doing it. Using idols. Using legendary figures. Using gods. And then getting their followers. And then moving away with those followers. And the legendary figure etc. Remains on the side. This has happened with Lord Ram too. This has happened with Bharatiya Janata Party and Lord Ram too.

[00:09:38] Political parties are not bothered about Hinduism. Political parties are bothered about Hindus. Because Hindus give vote. Hinduism doesn't give you vote. Hinduism gets you vote. And that's the point I wanted to make. And that's what I derive from this particular lesson. Otherwise, you know, scams. You know, we are a country of scams. We are a country of people who are dishonest. And that's a fact. We are dishonest. I mean, otherwise, for heaven's sake.

[00:10:09] Scamming a temple? Scamming the Lord himself? That's the point I wanted to make tonight. Till I see you next time. Best tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.