Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said no one from the Bharatiya Janata Party will be part of the trust that will oversee the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. On November 9, the Supreme Court’s five-judge Constitution bench had asked the Centre to set up a trust within three months to oversee the construction of a Ram temple at the site in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid stood till 1992.
“I want to make two things clear: there won’t be any trustee from among BJP members and the government will not spend anything on the project,” Shah said in an interview to Times Now. “The trust will have to collect donations from the society to make it [the temple].” Media reports had suggested that Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath will be part of the trust.
Asked by when the temple will come up, Shah said “the people making” it will decide on the timeline. However, during an election rally in Jharkhand on Monday, Shah had said that a grand Ram temple “touching the skies” will be built in Ayodhya within four months.
Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had earlier said that Rs 100 crore will be collected from the people for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “The VHP will not make any announcement for crowd funding,” VHP’s Working President Alok Kumar had said, according to Hindustan Times. “Instead, the trust will issue an appeal. I will make it clear that the VHP will not collect any funds for temple construction.” The office-bearers of the trust are likely to appeal for crowd funding at the Sant Sammelan during the Magh Mela in Prayagraj in February 2020.
On December 13, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had urged every household in Jharkhand to contribute at least one brick and Rs 11 for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “Ram Rajya runs on the contribution made by the society,” he had said while addressing an election rally in Giridih district.
In its November 9 order, the Supreme Court had said that the Muslims should be given a five-acre plot elsewhere in Ayodhya for the construction of a new mosque as relief for the “unlawful destruction” of the Babri Masjid. On December 12, the Supreme Court had rejected all 18 petitions that had sought a review of the verdict.
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