From Bollywood’s ‘creative freedom’, and neo-Ambedkarite ‘rationality’ to political slogans and gimmicks, the methods vary, but the mockery of Hindu faith stays constant. On 31st July, Independent MP Pappu Yadav cosplayed a greedy Brahmin priest and staged a nukkad Natak-style skit in the Parliament complex, enacting the Ayodhya Ram Mandir donation theft.
Dressed as a Hindu Brahmin priest in saffron robes, Rudraksh mala, Tripund, and saffron headgear, Pappu Yadav sat near the Makar Dwar with donation boxes, with Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ‘donating’ into the boxes. Symbolically, Yadav then pocketed the cash and ran off with the donation box to enact ‘Chanda Chori’.
Awadhesh Prasad, the Samajwadi Party MP from Faizabad, the constituency that includes Ayodhya, was also a part of this blatant mockery of Hindu priests and furtherance of the ‘Lalchi-chor Brahmin’ stereotype.
In the videos of the Opposition’s Hinduphobic gimmick, the ‘priest’ can be seen touching the feet of the Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad and faced mock confrontation from ‘devotees’.
In another clip, several Opposition MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, Kharge, SP MP Awadhesh Prasad, and others, can be seen performing a lynching of the ‘Brahmin priest’ who stole the donated cash.
विपक्ष ने आज संसद में विरोध के दौरान एक शॉर्ट प्ले किया। सांसद पप्पू यादव पुजारी बनकर आए। राहुल गांधी ने भी चंदा दानपात्र में डाला और पुजारी अयोध्या सांसद के पैर छूते दिखाई दिए।
— Poonam Pandey (@pandeypoonam20) July 31, 2026
फिर पुजारी बने पप्पू यादव दानपात्र लेकर भाग गए#Parliament pic.twitter.com/i39R7uH4CO
While on the surface, the Opposition MPs performed the skit to raise the Ram Mandir donation theft issue, their intentions, the saffron attire and the factually incorrect insinuation warrant scrutiny.
Were Ram Mandir priests behind the donation theft?
The outrageous skit and Pappu Yadav’s cosplay as a temple priest suggested that the alleged donation theft in Ram Mandir was carried out by the temple priests.
However, the reality is that none of the temple priests has any reported role in the embezzlement of Ram Mandir donations.
A preliminary report submitted before the court by the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) indicated systemic failures and the role of the counting staff in donation theft rather than temple priests.
The report revealed that approximately 70 suspicious incidents of alleged pilferage were captured on CCTV between around 27th April and 5th June 2026.
Some of the counting staff members were also seen repeatedly concealing wads of cash in pockets, socks, underclothing, and even in the attached bathroom.
The SIT report hinted at serious lapses in the security protocol. It found absence of proper frisking at entry and exit of the counting area, substandard control over personal belongings, combined counting of cash from multiple donation boxes (Daan Patra, Hundi), exploitation of CCTV blind spots, and inadequate monitoring.
The CCTV video footage showed that some of the key employees counting the money were secretly hiding the bundles of notes and loose notes inside their clothes, pockets and shoes, while some other employees were helping them in this work by providing cover.
The SIT report emphasised that the continuous embezzlement of donated cash was not a mere oversight, but rather the result of deliberate and gross negligence of security regulations.
The report also mentions that the theft of donations took place under the watch of Subhash Srivastava, the in-charge of the counting room.
The SIT probe has found six employees directly involved in this theft, which include Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey and Ramshankar Mishra.
These individuals were appointed by the SBI through a private agency; however, their appointments were made on the recommendations of some temple Trust officials.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust
Trust functionaries have been criticised, and the Trust head, Champat Rai, has even resigned on moral grounds. However, nowhere does the SIT report mention any direct or indirect involvement of the Ram Mandir priests in the alleged donation theft.
The SIT report makes it clear that the core donations embezzlement mechanism was identified in the counting process after collection and had no connection with temple priests performing rituals.
Pappu Yadav deliberately invoked Hindu Brahmanical image
The Member of Parliament from Bihar’s Purnia, Pappu Yadav’s choice to dress up as a saffron-donning temple priest was a deliberate invocation of Hindu religious imagery.
The Opposition MPs, notorious for their disdain for Hindus and Muslim appeasement, mocked the entire Brahmin Pujari tradition, stereotyping them as thieves who steal money donated by devotees while pretending to be in the noble service of God.
While anti-BJP parties have had a longstanding record of Hinduphobia, such theatrics mocking Hindus, especially Brahmins, unfolding in the Parliament complex is outrageous on many levels.
These political parties, Congress, Samajwadi Party, and others, ridiculing the Brahmin community and the Hindu faith, begin their ‘temple run’ ahead of elections to win over Hindu voter support.
Rahul Gandhi becomes kattar Shivbhakt, Dattatreya-gotri Brahmin, Akhilesh Yadav claims that Lord Krishna comes in his dreams, and Priyanka Gandhi rushes to every temple she can to appear more Hindu than the BJP leaders.
Clearly, Hindu-hating political leaders are exploiting the Ram Mandir donation theft issue to mock Hindus, their faith, and their intellect.
OpIndia has long highlighted a prevalent fashion among the Islamo-leftist political-ideological ecosystem to mock Brahmins. Cutting Janeu is celebrated as a victory over Brahminism, attacking Brahmin food choices is glorified as a fight against ‘caste purity’, portraying Brahmins as frauds and sexual objectification of Brahmin women is described as social justice.
Meanwhile, Pappu Yadav’s Brahminphobic theatrics inside the Parliament complex have triggered a backlash. Several Hindu saints gathered at the Chitragupta Ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura and raised posters describing Pappu Yadav as “Kaliyug ka Kansa”. The saints said that people like Pappu Yadav have nothing to do with Hindu Sanatan Dharma; they only indulge in religious charades for vote bank politics while harbouring hatred for the Hindu faith.
Pappu Yadav, Congress, and Samajwadi Party have a long track record of Hinduphobia
While this blatant Hinduphobic ‘comedy’ inside the Parliament premises is startling, Pappu Yadav has long been engaging in anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin commentary.
Back in 2016, Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav had called all Hindu saints “anti-national”. While addressing the media, Yadav urged poor people to stop going to temples to save themselves from being exploited by Hindu saints.
He even said that there was “nothing wrong” in the burning of national flags in Jammu and Kashmir.
Unsurprisingly, Pappu Yadav had once ‘predicted’ that one day the world will accept Islam.
Similarly, the Congress party, which now is pretending to be concerned about breach of trust of crores of Rambhakts due to Ram Mandir donation theft, had denied the existence of Lord Ram.
In 2007, an affidavit filed by the Congress-led government read, “Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, but these cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters and occurrences of events depicted therein.” The affidavit was filed to register the UPA government’s opposition to the demand to scrap the Setusamudram project as it would damage the Ram Setu.
And who can forget how the Samajwadi Party government led by late Mulayam Singh Yadav had ordered firing on unarmed Karsevaks in Ayodhya in late 1990. Mulayam Singh’s Muslim appeasement had earned him the opprobrious “Mullah Mulayam” moniker. His son Akhilesh Yadav has also taken forward the Muslim appeasement legacy he inherited from his father, and now his party leaders are openly mocking the Hindu faith.
