Kovind offers Rs 5 lakh, Governors & chief ministers too donate for Ram Temple

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday donated Rs 5,00,100 for the development of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, because the Ramjanmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust started a nationwide marketing campaign to gather donations.
“A delegation of four people had gone to receive the good wishes of the Hon’ble President. The President along with his family donated a cheque of five lakh and one hundred rupees for the construction of the temple. We are happy that this national movement for temple construction has begun with his hands,” VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal mentioned.
The President’s workplace didn’t problem an official assertion on this regard. VHP sources mentioned the President made the donation in his private capability.
The delegation that visited Kovind included former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and head of the committee for the development of the Ram Temple, Nripendra Mishra, member of the Trust Swami Govinddev Giri, VHP International Working President Alok Kumar, and RSS chief Kulbhushan Ahuja.
VHP sources mentioned the primary day of the donation drive had seen an enthusiastic response not solely from a number of dignitaries but additionally from frequent individuals. A delegation is meant to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi as effectively for his “blessings and good wishes”, sources mentioned.
The sources mentioned the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Trivendra Singh Rawat respectively; the Governors of Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Bandaru Dattatreya, Draupadi Murmu, and Baby Rani Maurya respectively; and Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel made donations on Friday.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had donated final yr itself. On Friday, the state Information Department mentioned Adityanath had contributed one other cheque of Rs 2 lakh, PTI reported.
According to the VHP, Chief Minister Rawat gave a cheque of Rs 1.51 lakh, and Governor Maurya a cheque of Rs 1.21 lakh. Governor Koshiyari donated a cheque of Rs 1.11 lakh at an occasion in Nagpur.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar was quoted by PTI as saying it was “strange” if Governors had been collaborating in a marketing campaign to gather cash for the temple.
On a question on the mass contact programme to hunt funds to construct the Ram temple, Pawar mentioned it was the precise of any organisation to hunt funds, PTI reported. “But I have heard, I don’t know how far it is true, that Governors of states are also taking part in it. If that news is true, then it is strange,” Pawar mentioned, with out taking any names, based on PTI.
The Governor, Pawar mentioned, holds a key put up and belongs to the state and all its individuals. “It would be a sign of being sensible for them (Governors) to keep away from such issues on which people held opposite views,” PTI quoted him as saying.
The donation drive for the temple has been spearheaded by the RSS and VHP. Sources mentioned RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had visited Valmiki Temple on Delhi’s Mandir Marg, the place chief priest Krishnashah Vidyarthi made a donation after a ceremonial prayer to kickstart the marketing campaign.
Swami Awadheshanand Giri “went begging” for the temple to Dalit settlements in Nagpur, whereas Sadhvi Rithambara led an analogous drive amongst members of the Scheduled Castes in Mumbai, the VHP mentioned.
RSS leaders Suresh Joshi and Manmohan Vaidya too led drives in numerous states. Trust chief and VHP chief Champat Rai visited Tejgaon village in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, the place at a operate organised by former BJP MLA Surendra Bahadur Singh, a cheque of Rs 1,11,111 was given to Rai. Following this, Rai met UP Governor Anandiben Patel, who donated as effectively.
“Programmes have been held in all state capitals. The movement is catching momentum, and there is a lot of enthusiasm. We haven’t yet started collections in seven states, which include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Manipur, Haryana, and Delhi,” VHP spokesperson Bansal mentioned.
Although the drive to gather donations in Delhi will start solely on February 1, a number of businessmen and politicians from Delhi had donated on January 14 in the course of the inauguration of the Trust’s camp workplace in Kailash Colony.
Among those that donated had been industrialists Punit Dalmiya, Subhash Goyal, and S Ok Jindal, and MPs Gautam Gambhir and Parvesh Verma.
The Trust had introduced in December 2019 that it could launch the donation drive in January. It had mentioned that just about 4 lakh volunteers would cowl 55 crore individuals (11 crore households) in 5 lakh villages in a whirlwind 44-day marketing campaign ending February 27, the primary day of the holy dip on the Kumbh Mela.
“People will be made aware of the historic significance of the Janmabhoomi movement. The Trust has envisaged that just as crores of Ram bhakts contributed for the freedom of Ram Janmabhoomi, the temple too shall be built with their voluntary contributions,” the Trust had posted on Twitter then.
The push by Hindutva teams to gather donations have additionally seen some incidents of violence and clashes between communities.
In December, clashes erupted in a Muslim-dominated village in Indore district after members of right-wing Hindu teams taking part in a rally to gather donations for the development of the Ram temple, stopped in entrance of a mosque and allegedly raised slogans.
A couple of days earlier than this incident, there have been clashes in Ujjain’s Muslim-dominated Begum Bagh neighbourhood after slogans had been raised in a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha rally, resulting in stone-pelting.