CHENNAI: To counter the BJP’s opposition against the State government’s gold monetisation scheme, social media handles related to the DMK on Friday questioned Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s nod to the decision of the Somnath Temple in Gujarat to deposit 35 kg of gold towards a similar scheme. The PM is one of the trustees of the temple board.
The DMK has been targeted by the BJP ever since HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu announced the government decision to melt unused and broken gold ornaments in temples, and deposit them in nationalised banks to generate additional revenue. The government had been accused of trying to steal the temple gold and a few BJP leaders tried to portray the DMK as anti-Hindu.
Commenting on the social media storm, T Sabapathy Mohan, propaganda secretary of the DMK, told TNIE: “Earlier, many spread false information on social media that there is no such revenue generation scheme for gold deposits. But, the Somnath temple had deposited gold under the scheme three years ago.”
GK Muralidharan, one of the state general secretaries of the Congress, said: “The State government’s decision would improve the services of HR&CE in temples. There is nothing wrong with using the gold of one temple to carry out welfare measures in others.”
On PM’s nod for the scheme in Gujarat, BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy told TNIE: “Narendra Modi is one of the trustees of the Somnath Temple. The trustees can decide on this as the interest or income earned from the scheme will only be spent for that particular temple. But, here in TN, the HR&CE ministry is deciding for all temples, which is illegal.” He added that the deity is the owner of the temple and its assets, not the government.