After Union Home minister Amit Shah recently announced that the Ram temple in Ayodhya would be ready on January 1, 2024, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Friday (January 6) questioned his credentials to declare the opening date of the temple. Shah's statement, made in Tripura, was the first time a date was officially announced for the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. A day later, at a rally in Haryana's Panipat, Kharge said, “Are you the pujari of the Ram Temple/ Are you the mahant of the Ram Temple? Let the mahants, sadhus and sants talk about it. Who are you to talk about the opening of the temple? You are a politician. Your job is to keep the country secure, maintain law, and ensure food for the people and provide farmers with adequate prices.” Given Shah's stature and position in the government and his party, any statement by him would carry weight. Kharge's criticism is primarily in the nature of a political statement. Even so, whose job technically would it be to make an announcement about the temple? Which body is in charge of the construction, and who are its members? We explain. Who is in charge of the Ayodhya Ram temple construction? The Supreme Court, in its November 2019 verdict in the demolished Babri mosque case, had ruled that the 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya be handed over to a trust for the construction of a Ram temple. This trust was to be set up within three months. Accordingly, the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust (SRJBTKshetra) was set up by the central government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the formation of the trust in Lok Sabha on February 5, 2020. The trust has 15 members, of which 12 were nominated by the Government of India and three were selected in its first meeting, held on February 19, 2020. Who are the members of the trust? Champat Rai, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) international vice-president, is the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, while Mahant Nritya Gopal Das is the president. Swami Govind Dev Giri is the treasurer. Senior lawyer K Parasaran is the founder trustee member, while the other members include Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati, Swami Vishwaprasannatheerth, Yugpurush Paramanand Giri, Vimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra, Anil Mishra, Kameshwar Chaupal, and Mahant Dinendra Das. The ex officio members (meaning their inclusion is on the basis of the office they hold) include Nripendra Misra, former principal secretary to PM Modi, Awanish K Awasthi, Advisor to the Uttar Pradesh CM, the District Magistrate (DM) of Ayodhya, and IAS officer Gyanesh Kumar. According to the trust's website, the temple's construction committee has seven members, with Misra as chairman. The other six are Shatrughan Singh, former Chief Secretary of Government Of Uttarakhand; Diwakar Tripathi, retired IAS officer and Managing Head, Hanuman Temple, near Lucknow University; Prof Raman Surie, retired dean, school of architecture, Delhi; KK Sharma, former DG, BSF; Anoop Mittal, former CMD, National Building Construction Corporation; and Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Comptroller & Auditor General of India. The trust approved the construction committee on November 11, 2020. What has the trust said about the opening of the temple? In September 2022, Misra had said that the ground floor of the Ram temple would be ready by December 2023 and devotees would be able to offer prayers by January 2024, after ‘pran pratishtha', or the installation of the deity. Misra had told The Indian Express, “While the ground floor that will house the sanctum sanctorum will be complete by December 2023, the first and second floors of the temple will be ready by December 2024, even as the entire carving work will be complete by the end of 2025.” According to the trust's website, the temple will have a built-up area of 57,400 sqft, and a height of 161 feet. It will have three floors of 20 feet height each. And which members of the trust recently commented in support of Bharat Jodo Yatra? Earlier this week, Ram temple chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das had “blessed” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. A day later, Champat Rai and Swami Govind Dev Giri both spoke in support of the Yatra. And a day after Ram temple votaries in Ayodhya backed Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra, Amit Shah, while targeting the Congress leader, announced the date for the Ayodhya temple's completion.
