Ram bhakts at the door and the dog-whistles

The last time a bunch of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members had come knocking at Anir Saha’s door, he was a college boy in Assam. More than 30 years later, Saha, who now lives in Delhi, recalls how his ‘Kaku’ (father’s brother) went out with his new-found ‘friends’ and never really returned home.

The year was 1989. All that Saha’s uncle—a fresh VHP recruit—would talk about those days was ‘kar seva’. Later that year, Kaku and his friends made a journey all the way to faraway Ayodhya to donate bricks collected from every nook and corner to construct a Ram temple at the site where a masjid stood.

For the next few months, Kaku remained mostly missing from home making unscheduled travels to places his family had little inkling of. By the spring of 1990, uncle was dead—under mysterious circumstances. But that’s another story. No one in the Saha family ever since participated in any such ‘social activity’. Nor did they see any of kaku’s friends after that.

Saha had almost forgotten about all that until February 4 this year.

“There were four-five people at my doorstep for donation to construct Ram Temple.” They showed him a receipt with some printed words. “But I was hardly in the mood to talk to them or look at their book. So I quickly gave Rs 100 and took the receipt.”

A similar sense of urgency engulfed Navdeep Singh, a Mukherjee Nagar resident in Delhi, when RSS/VHP volunteers showed up at his doorstep. “I wasn’t very willing but also didn’t want to take any risk. These people come in huge numbers. We are normally scared of them. They are more like collection goons. If I don’t give them any money, who knows what they will do in future.”

The fundraiser

On January 14, the VHP, along with other organisations of the RSS, began a nationwide door-to-door fundraising campaign on behalf of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJTK)  for the construction of Ram Mandir. It will go on till February 27.  According to the members of the SRJTK—a trust set up by the Union government for construction of Ram Temple — the temple in Ayodhya will be built in around three years with an estimated cost of around Rs 300-400 crore (for the main temple) and Rs 1,100 crore to develop the 70-acre complex.

Coupons of Rs 10, 100 and 1,000 are being used for the collection of donations from as many households as possible. If anyone wants to contribute more than Rs 20,000, one has to do so through cheques. One can also donate online, says the Trust website.

Sandeep Yadav, a BJP worker, tells The Federal that they have been going door to door for collections and people can give whatever they wish to. “There is no upper or lower limit. Even Re 1 will be accepted. Those who will give the money will get the blessings of lord Ram.”

While the Sangh and its supporters claim the drive has been smooth so far with an overwhelming number of people contributing for the ‘cause’, instances of violence preceding the formal launch of the fund collection drive have already been reported.

In the last week of December, Ujjain, Indore and Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh have been witness to incidents of communal violence, all of which broke out during fund collection rallies for the construction of Ram temple.  In January this year, rioting broke out between two communities in Kutch, as a rally brought out to collect funds for building the grand temple turned violent.

Although BJP workers like Sandeep Yadav says there’s no pressure on anyone to donate, the commination in the name of Ram is clear. “There is no bar, if someone doesn’t want to give the money, it is up to them but all who are real Indians will surely contribute,” says Yadav. He, however, doesn’t elaborate what he means by ‘real Indians’.

Earlier, former BJP Delhi chief and MP Manoj Tiwari had announced to undertake a Rath Yatra in Delhi, covering some of the areas in Northeast Delhi—which had last year witnessed widespread communal riots. Tiwari later postponed the proposed yatra owing to the farmers’ protest.

Fund collection drives have also been cancelled in Punjab and Haryana due to the farmers’ protest. Home Minister Amit Shah himself conveyed the message to party workers in the state to cancel all drives in these states since the farmers are angry and closely watching BJP workers and leaders everywhere.

Direct messaging

But all that hasn’t stopped volunteers on the ground from unleashing both covert and overt threats. For instance, a rally organised  in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar in January was reverberating with messages like “Hindustan me rehna ho to Vande Mataram kehna seekho, aur aukat me rehna seekho (If you want to live in Hindustan, you must learn to say Vande Mataram and live within your limits).”

According to this Indian Express report, a rally organised by the Mayur Vihar unit of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal witnessed hundreds of motorbikes with saffron flags lined up to raise awareness about the Ram Mandir fund collection drive. “Most bikes flaunted saffron flags, three men shared many two-wheelers, and barely anyone wore a helmet. Some women accompanied them on scooters, while e-rickshaws in the back had the elderly, children and more women,” the report said.

A loudspeaker installed on a lorry blared songs like: “Hum Hindu jagaane aaye hain, Hum Hindu jaga kar jaayenge (we have come here to awaken the Hindu pride and will do so)”; “Chamak rahi talwarein sab ki, chamak raha trishul hai, Hindu ko kamzor na samjho, ye dushman ki bhool hai (the swords and tridents are sharp and gleaming, it’s the enemy’s fault if he considers Hindus to be weak.)”

The inflamed Hindu sentiments become more blatant with similar calls infiltrating WhatsApp groups for residents of various apartment complexes.

For instance, Aarti Bora, who lives in a highrise apartment in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, says the WhatApp group for residents is regularly bombarded with donation requests. “But these requests for funds are accompanied by inflammatory slogans and messages.” Aarti (not her real name) shared with The Federal a screenshot of one such message sent by a resident Nikhil, a chartered accountant.

A little away from Aarti’s apartment, Nida Ahmed (name changed) had a hard time controlling her emotions when a group of volunteers from her apartment complex told her that they will start the door-to-door drive from her flat. “It will set a good example,” they told her.

However, senior members of the RSS/VHP brush aside such red flags as incidents by ‘overenthusiastic’ youths. During a TV interview, when SRJTK general secretary and VHP vice-president Champat Rai was asked about allegations of violent sloganeering and weapon brandishing in rallies, this is what he had to say: “Such brandishing of weapons and swords wasn’t part of our programme for fund collection rallies.”

He added: “But if any rules have been violated, the administration is there to maintain law and order. It will do so. If any enthusiastic youths have done such things, I request them to refrain from doing so. This is a programme for construction of Ram Mandir, this is not an andolan.” For the record, repeated attempts by The Federal to reach out the SRJTK members for comments failed to elicit any response.

Notwithstanding the mild requests by Rai, his soldiers on the ground could hardly refrain from expressing their ‘true sentiments’.

“It is not that we are asking money for us. Money is for a cause which every Indian wanted for centuries. We will go to Muslim areas as well. There are many real Indian Muslims who want to donate money and real Indian Muslims should contribute,” insists Sandeep Yadav.

Rakesh Kumar, another resident, agrees with Yadav. “We need the Ram temple. Shri Ram plays a significant role in our history and Ayodhya being his birthplace, there needs to be a big temple. Mughals demolished the temple but now we have an opportunity to build it again.”

Volunteers like Yadav and Kumar are far less intimidating compared to the troll brigade on social media endorsing the funds drive and unleashing vicious attacks on anyone disagreeing with them.

“Hundreds of trolls started sending all kinds of abuses on social media and called me Hinduphobic the moment I pointed out the blatant intimidation in the name of fund collection,” says Geetha (name changed). So much so, Geetha adds, that she deactivated her social media accounts for some time to avoid the trolls.

“These right-wing trolls claim none of the volunteers force anyone to donate, but that’s not entirely true. They may not say that directly but they have been marking people/houses that have or haven’t contributed,” says another social media user.

He and his family were clearly worried after the volunteers left the house when their aunt refused to give them anything. “But before leaving they noted down the house number. What does that signify? Why won’t people feel threatened?”

Many VHP/RSS volunteers on the ground across cities have been displaying similar “enthusiastic behaviour’, some even going beyond their call of duty.

In Karnataka, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K Gopalaiah launched a drive to collect funds for the Ram Mandir. He, together with MLA Preetham Gowda and other BJP legislators, took to fundraising ignoring the Constitutional obligations.

In fact, the VHP kicked off its fundraising drive by meeting President Ram Nath Kovind, who donated Rs 5,00,100. An editorial in The Telegraph pointed out: “Asking for contributions to build a temple is not prohibited. The response to the request depends on personal choice and faith. But when the president of a secular country donates over five lakh rupees at the beginning of a drive to raise funds to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, choice and faith cannot remain personal or private. That the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had its affiliates launch a nationwide quest for contributions with a donation from the “first citizen” was an exhibition of the drive’s legitimacy, an entitlement above question.”

Dalit leader Gurushant Pattedar called the BJP-led government’s move to collect funds unconstitutional and appealed to the people to think twice before contributing. “This drive will only divide people further and make a certain section of the society a target in the hand of right-wing people,” he says.

While many residents opposed the idea of door-to-door fund collection and expressed concern over security issues with RSS/VHP men keeping tab of those not contributing money, RSS functionary N Thippeswamy says they were not forcing anybody to pay. “These are voluntary contributions.”

Thippeswamy is the secretary of the fundraising committee ‘Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Nirman Nidhi Samarpan Samiti’ in Karnataka.

Other volunteers on the ground are also quick to point out that “everybody is contributing of their own volition for the good cause’.

“Look at the number of Congress leaders who have come out in support of the fund collection. Even some Muslim leaders have generously donated, just like so many big Bollywood stars,” says Sanjaya, a volunteer from Greater Noida, UP. Sanjaya, who recently lost his job following the lockdown, says he has been devoting his full-time to the fund collection drive these days.

In Tamil Nadu, the volunteers apart from visiting door to door, have also kept separate ‘hundials’ (donation box) in places like Kanchi Sankaracharya Mutt. They also encourage their children to give away their piggy bank savings for this purpose. The children are asked to dress like Rama, Lakshmana and Sita, and are taken door to door.

Vellore Ibrahim, president of Tamil Nadu Ekathuva Prachara Jamaat and a BJP supporter, too has been raising funds, calling it a “communal harmony” effort.

But it’s in the state of West Bengal, where the fund collection drive gets a curious twist of voter profiling. Here, the sangh parivar openly admits to using the drive for collecting personal details for election purposes as well.

In the state, RSS-VHP foot soldiers while collecting funds are also gathering personal details of the donors to assess the saffron brigade’s support base so that the BJP can launch an outreach campaign accordingly ahead of the Assembly elections.

“The fund collection programme is a bit different in Bengal. As elections are approaching here, we will collect the basic details of all the donors in the state during the drive,” Krishnendu Guha, spokesperson of the VHP’s Jalpaiguri district unit was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

Sources in the VHP and RSS, however, say so far they have received a lukewarm response to the drive in Bengal.

The response

But overall, according to various media reports, the response to the fund collection drives has been overwhelming.

Recently, Sri Vishwaprasanna Thirtha, seer of Pejavar Adhokshaja mutt  as well as a trustee of the SRJTK, said fund collection for Ram Temple has already netted Rs 1,000 crore, reported The Times of India.

It is this massive collection drive and the amount involved that has raised questions about possible scams.

In 2017, Nirmohi Akhara, a party in the Ram Mandir dispute, had accused the VHP of pulling a financial scam to the tune of Rs 1,400 crore with funds collected for Ram Mandir construction (the funds were collected as part of the nationwide ram rath yatra by LK Advani in 1990). Others, including the Congress, too have raised red flags over the funds.

Responding to such allegations Champat Rai earlier told mediapersons that the fund is being deposited with total transparency in the bank accounts.

On demands to provide details of the Rs 1,400 crore collected earlier, Rai said it was for the income tax department to work on it.

There have also been reports of frauds collecting funds under the banner of ‘Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Shetra Trust.

However, if Thippeswamy is to be believed, there is no scope for imposters  to collect funds. “Our karyakartas (BJP/RSS/VHP functionaries are collecting on the ground. And there’s no scope of imposters collecting money as our members connect with the locals and are keeping tab of it. From doctors to employees from MNCs and advocates are all engaged in the fundraising process,” he claims.

Notwithstanding the assurances, Navdeep Singh remains wary. Singh says he would rather give that money to some NGO or help someone poor instead of giving it for Ram Mandir construction. “Who knows where this money will be used for?”

(With inputs from Samir K Purkayastha, Prabhu Mallikarjunan,  N Vinoth Kumar, Kapil Kajal, Sanghamitra Baruah)