Facing backlash for suggestion
that the Centre can "appropriate" gold stock of religious trusts to raise money amid coronavirus crisis, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said two BJP prime ministers have introduced gold monetisation schemes so far.
After Pokharan atomic tests, then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in May 1998 first introduced Gold Deposit Scheme where gold was allowed to be deposited in bank for interest, he said in a statement.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then finance minister Arun Jaitely on November 5, 2015 introduced modified Gold Monetisation Scheme which till January end this year has mobilised 20,547 kg of precious yellow metal," he added.
"Incidentally both the prime ministers who introduced the gold monetisation scheme belong to the BJP," said the former Maharashtra chief minister.
"Those who accused me of stoking religious rift will face legal action at right time," Chavan added.
As per a reply in the Lok Sabha dated on 6 May, 2016, eight temples in the country including two from Maharashtra deposited their gold under GMS introduced by the BJP government in the Centre, the said.
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"In the first year of the scheme, eight temples from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir deposited gold with 11 nationalised banks," he said.
Some right-wing twitter handles had criticised Chavan for his suggestion.
On Wednesday, Chavan had tweeted that the government "must immediately appropriate all the gold lying with all the Religious Trusts in the country, worth at least USD 1 trillion, according to the #WorldGoldCouncil. The gold can be borrowed through gold bonds at a low interest rate. This is an emergency."
This gold can be utilised for printing money as well as for raising funds from the open market, the former Union minister had said.
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