New Delhi: A suggestion by senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan has raised to hackles of Hindu priests. They are infuriated with his suggestion that government should appropriate gold from temple trusts to tide over the financial crisis, triggered by Covid-19 pandemic.
A couple of religious gurus have taken strong exception to the suggestion made by Congress leader.
“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.
Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, Uttaradhikari, Mani Ram Das Chavni went a step ahead, calling Congress leaders ‘anti-national’ and also questioned why Chavan was seeking to borrow money from temples and ‘not from mosques and churches’.
Chavan’s remark that stoked row
On Wednesday, Chavan had said that the government must appropriate gold worth one trillion USD from all the temples in an ’emergency’ situation such as COVID-19.
#Stimulus.@PMOindia Govt. must immediately appropriate all the gold lying with all the Religious Trusts in the country, worth at least $1 trillion, according to the #WorldGoldCouncil. The gold can be borrowed through gold bonds at a low interest rate. This is an emergency.PC
— Prithviraj Chavan (@prithvrj) May 13, 2020
“Government must immediately appropriate all the gold lying with all the Religious Trusts in the country, worth at least $1 trillion, according to the #WorldGoldCouncil. The gold can be borrowed through gold bonds at a low-interest rate. This is an emergency.PC,” Chavan had tweeted.
