Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) member Subhash Vasu said the RBI letter seeking details of TDB gold stocks was an effort to intrude into the religious autonomy of temples.
Vasu told ‘Express’ that the RBI action was unacceptable as it demonstrated the apex bank’s partiality.
‘’Why the other religious institutions were excluded from this? This raises suspicion over the move,’’ he said.
Vasu said that the Board would meet on Tuesday to decide the future course of action.
TDB Commissioner N Venugopal said the letter sought only information on the stocks and didn’t have any direction to shift it to the bank’s custody.
The TDB, which is in possession of gold stocks worth crores of rupees, is unlikely to divulge the details as it would risk safety, highly-placed sources said.
The gold stocks are kept in the strong rooms of various major temples. "Keeping the valuables after divulging the details involves greater risk. Many temples have utensils and ornamental gold wares. The devotees will not allow transferring the valuables from the temples concerned,’’ the sources said.
RBI regional director Salim Gangadharan, who sent similar letters to four other Devaswom Boards in the state, later clarified that it was only a statistical exercise. He had also said that the bank had no plans to buy the gold.
However, the Hindu organisations have raised doubts over the ‘exercise’ and had urged the Board not to share the information.