Is the Ram Mandir roof leaking? The chief priest says so

On Sunday, 23 June, social media was awash with images of a portion of Ayodhya's much vaunted Rampath which had caved in following rains. Reports also emerged of parts of the Ayodhya station boundary wall collapsing in the downpour.

On Monday, beleaguered Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini and a large chunk of his cabinet, as well as Haryana Assembly speaker Gyan Chand Gupta arrived at the Ayodhya Ram Mandir en masse and paid obeisance at the Ram temple, with the CM saying he would approach the Uttar Pradesh government to open a guest house in the holy city.

While we don't suspect any damage control measures here, and while the caving in of a road laid mere months ago may be passed off as coincidence, what cannot be ignored is a damning indictment from the chief priest himself of the tremendous hurry in which the temple was constructed and inaugurated in time for the Lok Sabha elections.

In a video interview to PTI, Ram Mandir chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das has expressed his dismay at water leaking from the roof of the temple. "It is very surprising. So many engineers are here and the pran pratishtha (consecration) was held on 22 January, but water is leaking from the roof. Nobody would have thought this," he said.

In another comment to ANI, Das said, "In the very first monsoon, the roof of the sanctum sanctorum where the idol of Ram Lalla was installed has started to leak. Attention should be paid to the matter and to find out what was missing. It is very important. There is no space to drain the water from the roof." He added that offering prayers would become difficult for devotees if the leakage didn't stop.

In response, Sri Ram Mandir Construction Committee chairman Nripendra Mishra said "there is no design or construction issue. The mandaps which are open may get rainwater drops which was debated, but the decision was to keep them open as per Nagar architectural norms", referring to the temple architecture style popular in northern and western India. Mishra also claimed rainwater would stop dripping from the first floor once the second floor was completed and the shikhar (steeple) erected.

For his sake, and for the sake of the Rs 9,000 crore already spent on the construction of the temple alone, one hopes he is right.