Among the invitees at Ram Temple consecration ceremony was Sadhvi Ritambhara. Who is she?

वर्षों की तपस्या व संघर्ष के बाद आज अवधपुरी में भावुक क्षण… #RamMandirPranPrathistha #AyodhyaRamTemple #UmaBharti #sadhviritambhara #ShreeRam #ramlalapranprathishta #JaiShreeRam #NarendraModi #VHP #Vatsalya #paramshaktipeeth #Ayodhya pic.twitter.com/8dbevqxt60

— Sadhvi Ritambhara (@DidiRitambhara) January 22, 2024

Ritambhara and the Ram Temple movement

Ritambhara continues to hold significance in the Sangh parivar. On her 60th birthday on December 31, 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid a visit to the sadhvi in Vrindavan, where she runs an ashram for orphaned kids, widows, and the elderly. On January 1, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was in Vrindavan for the inauguration of an all-girls Sainik School, lauded Ritambhara for her contribution to the Ram Temple movement. “Didi Ma (Ritambhara) made a significant contribution during the Ram Temple movement. She has considered society as her family,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Sadhvi Ritambhara at a gathering in Derabassi on March 26, 1995 (Express Archive)

As The Indian Express has reported earlier, when a special CBI court was hearing the case into the conspiracy angle around the Babri Masjid demolition, Ritambhara was among those named by a prosecution witness for giving a “provocative speech”. She was also named by the Liberhan Commission in its 2009 report, stating that she along with Bharti had become “belligerent and militant” on the day of the demolition. In 2020, the special CBI court acquitted all accused in the case.

Born as Nisha in Ludhiana’s Doraha town in Punjaborn, Ritambhara was 16 when she accepted Swami Parmanand Giri of Haridwar as her guru and became a sadhvi. She rose to prominence within the Vishva Hindu Parishad, an RSS affiliate, in 1980s and started the Jan Jagran Abhiyan.

Sadhvi Ritambhara in Judicial Custody at Karkardooma Court in New Delhi on 27-1-1996. (Express photo by Prakash Singh)

Other controversies

In 1995, she was briefly arrested in Indore for allegedly making inflammatory remarks against Christians. In September 2022, a scheduled programme of Ritambhara to take place at a temple in Smethwick, a town in England, was cancelled amid protests. According to ANI report, the protest against the Hindutva leader had turned violent, with large crowds of people marching towards the temple and raising slogans. Some were seen climbing the walls of the temple.

Another event slated to be held in September 2022 at a church in New Jersey in the US was cancelled after it received multiple letters opposing the invite to Ritambhara.