New Delhi: The Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was “set up by the government of India” to construct the Shri Ram Temple at Ayodhya in February 2020. It flowed from the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case in Ayodhya, on November 9, 2019. In Part Q of the Order, on Page 926, the Supreme Court said: “The Central Government shall, within a period of three months from the date of this judgment, formulate a scheme pursuant to the powers vested in it under Sections 6 and 7 of the Acquisition of Certain Area at Ayodhya Act 1993. The scheme shall envisage the setting up of a trust with a Board of Trustees or any other appropriate body under Section 6. The scheme to be framed by the Central Government shall make necessary provisions in regard to the functioning of the trust or body including on matters relating to the management of the trust, the powers of the trustees including the construction of a temple and all necessary, incidental and supplemental matters.”Who announced its formation?The prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced the formation of this trust in parliament on February 5, 2020. Twelve of (the then) 15 members were nominated by the government of India, and three others selected at its first meeting.Who is on the Trust at present?These are the 14 members listed on the official site currently:K Parasaran, seniormost advocate in the Supreme Court – founder memberSwami Vasudevanand Saraswati Dev Maharaj – memberSwami Vishwaprasanna teerth Maharaj – memberParmanand Giriji Maharaj – memberGovind Dev Giriji Maharaj – treasurerAnil Mishra – memberKrishnamohan – memberNrityagopal Das – memberChampat Rai – general secretaryDinendra Das – member Prashant Lokhande, IAS – representative of the Union government, ex-officio memberSanjay Prasad, IAS – representative of UP government, ex-officio memberShashank Tripathi IAS – district magistrate, AyodhyaNripendra Mishra IAS – chairman, construction committee, ex-officio memberNine of the 14 members have close ties with the RSS and have been important for the Ram temple movement. Champat Rai, the general secretary of the Trust under fire now, but yet to be FIR-ed or have his resignation accepted, is meant to be especially close to PM Modi. He is from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad wing of the RSS and was once close to Modi’s bête noire since his Gujarat days, Praveen Togadia. Togadia testified to his “30-year long association” with Champat Rai when five months ago Togadia went to see the Ram Temple for the first time. Champat Rai gave him a tour, as can be seen here.Who are the ex-officio members?Ex-officio members matter and are important as they link the Trust to the government and are there to provide accountability and for oversight. Any issues regarding probity would call into question actions taken or not taken by ex-officio members.Two IAS officers amongst the 15 are representatives of the Union government and the Uttar Pradesh government. One is the district magistrate. One key retired IAS officer is considered closest to Narendra Modi. Nripendra Mishra – once the seniormost officer in Modi’s PMO – oversaw the construction of the temple. His son is a BJP MLC in UP after losing the last Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket.IAS officer Prashant Lokhande is also the present chairperson of the CBSE, appointed after the storm over the On-Screen Marking system brought ignominy to the otherwise prestigious body. He is a 2001 AGMUT (union territories officer) cadre and had assumed charge as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs only on April 1 this year before being pushed to head the CBSE. He appears as the Ministry of Home Affairs’ pointsman in the Trust. Previously. Current Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was in January 2020, then an additional secretary, brought in to head the newly-created Ayodhya desk. He was in the role till Lokhade took over.IAS officer Sanjay Prasad is from the 1995 batch and deemed to be one of the most influential bureaucrats in Uttar Pradesh. He hails from Sitamarhi, Bihar, and is currently additional secretary in the state government. He handles several critical departments, including home, information, protocol, vigilance, Gopan, visa-passport, and estate. Nripendra Misra is to the left of Narendra Modi in this image with officer trainees of the 2013 batch of Indian Foreign Service, in New Delhi on June 04, 2015. Photo: File.Nripendra Misra, IAS, is the only trustee who has spoken to the media on the donations pilferage and embezzlement scam so far. This speaks of his stature and confidence. He is a UP-cadre bureaucrat and had served as then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s chief secretary in the state, during 1990-91, when Yadav’s regime took a tough stand against kar sevaks attempting to damage the Babri Masjid. Hindutva proponents often bring up this point when commenting on Mishra, who has only grown from strength to strength. The principal secretary to the Prime Minister Modi, he stepped down on August 30, 2019. On stepping down, he spoke of the trust Modi had reposed in him; “It has been a privilege to serve the country under Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji. I am deeply grateful to him for this opportunity and the complete confidence he has place in me.”Misra was the one officer for whom the Modi government first broke the appointments rulebook. As early as May 28, 2014, the former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Misra was appointed principal secretary to the prime minister. This was possible only after the President of India signed an ordinance changing the appointment rulebook. “The move came as a shock to the bureaucracy, which was united in the view that it would be a big blow to the autonomy of regulators, not only at the Centre but also in states”, wrote Business Standard at the time.Misra’s appointment was a violation of a provision in the TRAI Act that makes a chairman of the regulator ‘ineligible’ for further employment under the Union or a state government, so the government moved an ordinance to circumvent the law. Confirming this, a retired top Trai official, un-named, told Business Standard the law was clear that “no former chairman or member of the Authority can take up a position in the government after ceasing to be in that office”.Perhaps that is why on June 19, he said, “Entire Ram Mandir management needs to go,” as quoted in India Today. The need for distancing Narendra Modi from the embezzlement would have been acute. Modi’s photograph is the only non-Trustee photograph on the website. His name, along with Mohan Bhagwat’s, is etched inside the Ram temple.Modi, despite criticism from Hindu religious leaders, himself performed crucial functions of the priest in the Ram temple, four months before the last general election in 2024.