Power shift signals emerged ahead of Trust meeting

Ayodhya: The harder you try to grasp sand in your fist, the quicker it vanishes. Even before the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust met on Monday, signs of a major shift in its power structure had begun to emerge.Citing security reasons, the local administration urged the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra to change the venue of the meeting on Sunday afternoon. All this while the meetings of the temple Trust were convened at the first floor of Mani Ram Das Chhavni, the ‘ashram’ of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the 88-year-old president of the Ram Temple Trust.The message between the lines was clear, Champat Rai was on his way out.People associated with Rai who used to participate in the past meetings to liaison with the local administration and police to coordinate the protocol, organise logistics, prepare guest rooms for night stays, record minutes at the meeting, issue press releases, among others, were kept at arm’s length.By late evening, it was evident that the crucial meeting will be organised independently without seeking any assistance from Bharat Kuti, the office-cum-residence of Champat Rai in Karsewakpuram which used to be abuzz in the past whenever quarterly meetings were organised.

The IT team of the Ram Temple Trust was also not roped in to put up elaborate video conferencing system which required 6-8 hours of preparations ahead of the quarterly review meetings.The invitation link to the Trust members who wanted to join the meeting virtually was also generated independently.Seven trustees gathered at the meeting hall of the Ram Temple Trust’s office situated in the basement of the public facilitation centre building.Due to multi-layered security structure, no unauthorised person was allowed. Nritya Gopal Das is unwell and requires assistance on wheelchair and trusts his successor Mahant Kamal Nayan Das to communicate on his behalf after reading his gestures.Though Nritya Gopal Das and Shankaracharya Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati are ‘X’ and ‘Y’ category protectees, not a single police personnel was allowed to escort them to the meeting hall.“All other people were requested to wait in a different room. Even Gopal Nagarakatte (Gopal Rao) was not allowed inside,” a police personnel deputed in the inner cordon said.Once the meeting concluded, it was time to send a message to staff members, volunteers, agencies and vendors who have been involved with various roles of the Ram temple that power has shifted from one hand to the other.While important social media accounts had already been taken over, even the admin rights of some WhatsApp groups were changed.Sources privy to the proceedings of the meeting said that the Trust members also agreed to terminate the contracts of certain vendors, including that with a leading public sector bank and the private security agency.