Meet Nripendra Misra, PM's man behind the construction of the Ram Mandir

Today is the day. It’s a historic day, as the consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir will take place in a grand ceremony. The temple town of Ayodhya is wearing a festive look as guests — there’s 8,000 of them expected from all walks of life as well as from across the globe — stream in, ahead of the consecration ceremony. And for one man, it’s a particularly significant day. For Nripendra Misra, chairman of the Ram Temple Construction Committee, it’s a day when he sees his untiring efforts since February 2020 come to life. Catch all the LIVE updates from the consecration ceremony HERE Let’s take a closer look at who is Nripendra Misra and his role in the construction of the Ram Mandir as well as the pran pratishtha ceremony. Misra’s rise and rise Before being the chairman of the Ram Temple Construction Committee, Misra was a former IAS officer of UP cadre and served as the principal secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2014 to 2019. Interestingly, the 78-year-old, who holds a masters degree in public administration from Harvard’s John F Kennedy, MA in political science and MSc in chemistry from and MSc in chemistry from Allahabad University, wanted to be a lecturer at Allahabad University. However, his teacher told him he had the potential to join the IAS. Taking his teacher’s advice forward, he cracked the UPSC exam and made it to the IAS in 1967. In his tenure, he has held several important posts. He also holds the honour of being the principal secretary to two powerful chief ministers — Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kalyan Singh. In fact, it is said that when Kalyan Singh took over from Mulayam in 1991, the BJP leader saw no problems in retaining Misra as principal secretary. However, many within the BJP objected, with an article in the RSS’ Panchjanya calling him a “CIA agent”. [caption id=“attachment_13640802” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Nripendra Misra was appointed as principal secretary to PM Modi in 2014 and joined office the same day as the PM. File image/PTI[/caption] Misra was eventually transferred from Lucknow and posted as the Chairman of the Greater Noida Authority in November 1992, just a month before the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In 2006, Misra was appointed as chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. And after serving in that post for three years, he began writing opinion pieces in newspapers. An Indian Express report states that a piece in April 2014, in which he defended Modi over Opposition allegations about gaps in his election affidavit, caught the attention of the top BJP leadership. And as they say, the rest is history. On 27 May 2014 — the same day Modi took charge as prime minister — he joined the office as principal secretary. Over the next five years, he built a rapport with PM Modi and the two worked in tandem. When asked what it was like to work with the PM, Misra has been quoted as saying that he was hands-on. For many of his colleagues, he became almost an elder brother, ready to stand up for them before the PM, and convey the prime minister’s expectations to them. **Also read: The story of Ram: What is the connection between Ayodhya and Thailand's Ayutthaya?** Being entrusted with the Ram Mandir project Six months after he stepped down as principal secretary to the PM in January 2020, Misra was named Chairman of the Nehru Memorial — now called the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society, PMML. When it was learnt that Misra “would have liked something more”, he was appointed as the chairman of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust (Ayodhya) construction committee. And according to his colleagues, PM Modi couldn’t have appointed a better person for the job. As a senior bureaucrat told The Indian Express, “He trusts his colleagues, empowers them to be candid with their views, and is a leader who motivates. He takes decisions quickly, and is a stickler for time schedules. Most importantly, he can convey the prime minister’s expectations, and say what the PM would think of a particular idea.” [caption id=“attachment_13640822” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Nripendra Misra, the chairman of Ram Mandir construction committee, inspects preparations ahead of Ram Temple consecration ceremony, in Ayodhya. It was in 2020, he was appointed as the chairman of the Ram Mandir construction committee. File image/PTI[/caption] When asked himself what he thinks of the responsibility entrusted to him, he had called it a divine blessing. “What more could I have asked for? I am not saying I will call it a day. But what has come to me is from the Lord who alone will chart my next course,” he had told Times of India. In fact, he says that when he was assigned the task of constructing the Ram Mandir, the PM had given him a one-line brief — build a temple for Ram that will last at least a thousand years. And that’s what he has done. He has coordinated with different people, agencies to ensure that the mandir is built and ready for today’s grand ceremony. He’s been hard at work ensuring seamless coordination between the contractor, Larsen and Toubro, the consultant, Tata Consulting Engineers, the architect, CB Sompura and various other local, state and national agencies. He realised that the temple is a realisation of lakhs and lakhs of devotees and in an effort to not disappoint them, he’s been hard at work. He made the Circuit House in Ayodhya’s Civil Lines his second home for the last few years. But what has he felt about this assignment? Misra says that while he is a religious person, he realised this went beyond his personal sentiments. “This is something of national importance, which has come out of the apex judiciary — if I can live up to it and deliver, it will be my way of paying back to this country and society. I am not accepting the assignment as a religious person who must make a temple,” he told the Indian Express. And it seems that all his hard work will pay off today (22 January) with the consecration ceremony, which will not only see Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance, but also other VVIPs from different corners of the country and the world. [caption id=“attachment_13640832” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat receives the invitation to the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony by VHP International Working President Alok Kumar and Ayodhya Ram Mandir construction committee chairman Nripendra Misra (left), in New Delhi. File image/PTI[/caption] On criticism of the ceremony And as with any other job, the construction and consecration of the temple has received criticism. But Misra has remained unfazed. On the issue of the Shankaracharyas giving today’s event a miss, because the temple is incomplete, Misra was quoted as telling NDTV: “Shankaracharyas are dharm gurus. I am no one. They are responsible for the observants of Sanatan Dharma. Having said so, I want to give a message to the nation. “What we had announced was that Ram Lalla , the child Ram, will be in bhootal (the temple’s ground floor). The bhootal will have the garba griha (sanctum sanctorum), five mandaps, (religious) iconography. That has been completed,” Misra explained. With inputs from agencies