Seven generations of thieves will be under curse for stealing from Shriram Mandir

A statement by ‘Shriram Janmabhoomi Nirman Samiti’s President

Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) – ‘Shriram Janmabhoomi Nirman Samiti’s Chairman and a former IAS officer, Nripendra Misra said about the thieves who stole offerings from Shriram Mandir that their seven generations will be under a curse. He was being interviewed when he added that Champat Rai is the whole and soul of ‘Shriram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Nyas’; therefore, he would not raise a doubt about Rai’s loyalty. He is associated with the Mandir for the last 35 years; but there have been shortcomings in the supervision.

The points presented by Nripendra Misra in the interview

1. The issue of theft of donations is more serious and challenging than the earlier problem of land purchase. A three-member committee was set up to bring transparency in the land dealings. Lack of transparency in the system can create problems as was realised through that incident.

2. There are two parts in management, loyalty and supervision. The first part is to have faith in the loyalty of workers and the second part is keeping supervision on them. Faith and supervision are the two sides of the same coin. Champat Rai has deficiency in the supervision and not in loyalty.

3. It is difficult to decide how long such thefts of donations have been going on. After the news of theft, separate information has been collected such as how much money was collected every month in the last three years. It was observed that sometimes, donations worth Rs 4 crores were collected while sometimes more than Rs 10 crores were collected. Devotees have put even rings, earrings and gold bangles also in the donation boxes. There is no account maintained for the ornaments put in donation boxes.

4. There has to be proper transparency in collection of donations. The information about daily receipts should be posted on the website. It has been mentioned in the guiding principles that employees should wear clothes which are without pockets. There should be checking while entering and leaving the temple premises. It is said that people left the temple with bundles of notes in their pockets. The guidelines are good but there has been deficiency in execution.