Congress on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-RSS over ’embezzlement’ of donations at the Ram Temple, saying it is a “scam” perpetrated by their ecosystem, questioning silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Raking up the silence of the Centre over the issue, Congress on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-RSS over the alleged embezzlement of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, saying it is a “scam” perpetrated by their ecosystem on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are “totally silent”.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the BJP has a three-pronged strategy – “‘vote chori, seat chori, chanda  chori”.He also lashed out at the RSS, saying its statement on the issue was “disgraceful and shameful”.

“The ‘chanda chori’ has taken place which is absolutely beyond any doubt. The RSS statement is disgraceful and shameful. These are the people, who try to give certificates to others for integrity, honesty and nationalism, have been caught in a most disgraceful and shameful manner,” Ramesh said.

“Donations running into thousands of crores have been siphoned off. Of course, there should be an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge, of course the toughest action should be taken against all the accused but the silence of the prime minister and the home minister is shocking,” Ramesh said.

“We expect the prime minister, who took credit for building the Ram Temple and inaugurating it on January 22, 2024, just before the Lok Sabha elections, after which they ended up losing Ayodhya to make a statement. They have been completely silent,” the Congress general secretary in-charge communications said.

The BJP’s is a three pronged strategy: ‘vote chori, seat chori, chanda chori’, Ramesh said, in an apparent reference to the Congress’ earlier allegation of poll irregularities and the rejection of Rajya Sabha nomination of its Madhya Pradesh candidate Meenakshi Natarajan.”Remember the electoral bond scheme. It was struck down by the Supreme Court. Hundreds of crores were collected – ‘chanda do dhanda lo’. So this whole ‘chanda business’ is part of the BJP’s DNA,” he said.Ramesh asserted that the prime minister and the home minister must break their silence on the issue.

“We all know that all those people who are part of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, they are part of the trust because they are trusted by the BJP-RSS. To think that the RSS did not know what is happening, to think that the PM and HM did not know what was happening, is beyond imagination. Everybody knew what was happening, this whole enterprise was a  political enterprise and the donation, trust were part of that,” Ramesh said.

The Congress leader asked what Nipendra Mishra, who had been the principal secretary to the PM, was doing.”This is a tightly-locked, interconnected ecosystem. Nothing escapes the other’s attention,” he said.”This is a ghotala, a scam perpetrated by the BJP-RSS ecosystem in which the prime minister and the home minister are totally silent,” Ramesh said.