Prithviraj Chavan Slammed For Suggesting Govt Should 'Borrow Gold From Religious Trusts'

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan is receiving flak from Hindu priests for suggesting the government should borrow gold from religious trust, for combating the economic crunch of the country due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

On Wednesday, Chavan expressed his views on Twitter about 'appropriate' usage of the gold lying with religious trusts in case of 'emergency'.

He further said that the country has estimated ₹76 lakh crore ($1 Trillion) worth of gold lying with the sacred trusts, suggesting that the government should seize the gold at a return bid of 1 or 2% interest, that can be spent on the lower middle and poor class to increase their spending capacity.

"Before taking gold from Hindu temples, money should be taken to combat Coronavirus from Congress leaders who have amassed huge wealth since independence," said Swami Paramhans, Tapaswi Chhawni in a video posted by Times Now News.

Swami allegedly quoted Congress leaders as 'anti-national' and questioned Chavan for not seeking to borrow money 'from mosques and churches' but Hindu trusts.

Former BJP Lok Sabha MP Kirit Somaiya on Thursday lashed out at Chavan and tweeted a video, alleging whether the questioning and demand was on behalf of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress-ruled state government leaders.

Sensing aggravation on his statement, Chavan later tweeted that his suggestion of gold monetisation was not a new one. The Gold Deposit Scheme (GDS) was started back in 1999 by the Vajpayee govt after the fallout of economic sanctions post 1998 Pokhran Atomic tests, Chavan said.

The same scheme was later renamed as Gold Monetisation Scheme by the Modi government in 2015.

"According to a finance ministry report, 20,547 kg of gold has been mobilised by 2,952 entities between November 2015 and January 2020 under the scheme. Two temples from Maharashtra have deposited their gold with 11 banks," Chavan as quoted by Hindustan Times.

While speaking to the media agency, Ramesh Shinde, spokesperson of right-wing organisation, Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, alleged Congress to impose 'anti-Hindu' policies from past 70 years, and that the party has looted massive public money in the form of scams.

Earlier this week, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman YS Subba Reddy told the media that the trust will not be using gold deposits in the bank, despite the recent loss of ₹400 crores in revenue and shall use other reserves to pay employees' salaries and take care of expenses for maintenance of the temple.

The reserves rule out the gold deposits in the bank, stating that it will not be touched in any scenario, quoting that gold deposits hold 'sentimental issues'.

The world's richest temple is reported to have nine tonnes of gold reserve and ₹14,000 crore fixed deposits in various banks.

Some of the richest temples of the country that hold billions of reserves in various banks include Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala, Shirdi Sai Baba Shrine and Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and so forth.

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