A stir has been created by Rishi Bagree, a popular rightwing Twitter user, after he claimed that he had helped raise funds worth Rs 16 crore for the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra (trust) in a single day in meetings organised for Champat Rai, the trust’s general secretary. Rai denied that anything of that kind happened.
Bagree is considered a prominent rightwing influencer, with his followers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister for Textiles and Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.
On December 22, Bagree had tweeted “Organized several meetings in Kolkata with Secretary General of Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust Shri Champat Rai ji and mobilized Rs 16 crores fund commitment in just one day”. The tweet has since been deleted, but several screenshots calling Bagree’s act into question are floating around.
Rai responded to the tweet, stating “I do not know anybody with this name personally. I meet several people about serious issues regarding the construction of the temple but to spread misleading information based on a photo is a serious issue. Please do not make a matter related to faith a medium of personal propaganda.”
Incidentally, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesperson in Ayodhya, Sharad Sharma, had no inkling of the matter. He only said that Rai had gone to Kolkata on December 20.
In response to a query from THE WEEK, Bagree issued a statement that he has since also posted on his Twitter handle. Bagree said, “Whatever I tweeted is 100% fact and I stand by each and every word of it… My mistake was I shouldn’t have tweeted the funds figure which raised eyebrows among certain sections of social media. Hence I deleted that tweet… It’s true that shri Champat Rai ji don’t know me personally and we met just twice in the same day since I was working under Shri Gopal ji but I’s equally true that we have mobilized funds commitment and these are serious commitments (sic).”
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The Shri Gopal ji mentioned in the response is Gopal Jhunjunwala, treasurer of the VHP, who Bagree claims to have known for the last 15 years as they were part of the same “morning Walker group”.
It was apparently Jhunjunwala who called Bagree on December 2 to ask for help to mobilise funds for the temple construction. Then Bagree, who describes himself as ‘an ordinary tax paying citizen’, got in touch with business families he had known for decades and secured commitments for donations. “Mind it these are serious commitments which cannot be taken back as that mean a big loss of face,” he said.
Two meetings were organised as part of these efforts—and both were attended by Rai. It was decided that contributions would be made vide cheques from January 14 as it marks the start of an auspicious period in the Hindu calendar.
Bagree has since been trolled, with social media users mocking him for his delayed clarification and also the fact that the clarification has had too few likes. Another user warned him of losing his mental balance and suggested that he apologise to the VHP as the organisation had taken the matter seriously.
