No BJP member in Ram temple trust: Amit Shah

NEWDELHI/PRAYAGRAJ: No one from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be a member of the trust that will oversee the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday, dismissing media reports that he and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath will be part of the body that will be set up on the orders of the Supreme Court.

“I want to make two things clear: there won’t be any trustee from among BJP members and the government will not spend anything on the project. The trust will have to collect donations from the society to make it [the temple],” he said in an interview to a television channel.

The people making the temple will decide on the timeline for the completion of the project, he said. “The Supreme Court has ordered us to complete all processes [of coming up with a scheme to build the temple] within 90 days, and I believe that we will be able to do it,” Shah added.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) plans to crowd-fund ~100 crore for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, top functionaries of the organisation said.

The SC cleared the way for the temple’s construction on November 9 when it ruled in favour of the Hindu parties in the Ram Janmabhoomi-babri Masjid title suit . It said that the disputed land in Ayodhya must be given to a trust for the temple’s construction.

The functionaries cited above said that once the trust is formed, it will make a formal announcement on the fund collection exercise. The office-bearers of the trust are likely to make an appeal for crowd funding at the Sant Sammelan or gathering of saints that the VHP plans to hold during Magh Mela in Prayagraj in February 2020.