The Modi government’s planned move to monetise gold reserves in temples has once again sparked a fierce debate in Kerala on how to deal with the treasure worth billions stacked in the underground vaults of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
Though the Bharatiya Janata Party and its affiliates, which opposed an earlier proposal to use the treasure for the benefit of the people, have now rallied behind the prime minister, many other Hindu outfits and the Congress-led United Democratic Front government have stuck to their stand that it should remain in the temple.
Many historians too are against disturbing the fortune but out of the fear that the government's move will intensify the numerous claims, including from Pakistan and Sri Lanka, on the wealth.
The treasure was discovered when five of the six subterranean vaults in the 16th century temple were opened on June 27, 2011, on the orders of the Supreme Court, which was hearing a private petition seeking transparency in the running of the temple.
The valuables in the five vaults, estimated to be worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore, include gold coins weighing 1,000 kg, over a tonne of gold in the form of rice trinkets, a sack full of diamonds and a rare statue of Lord Vishnu studded with diamonds, emeralds and rubies. Experts believe the riches in the sixth vault could be even more than what has been unearthed thus far.
Securing this massive wealth is costing the Kerala government crores of rupees. The state-of-the-art security for the temple, which has been declared a no-fly-zone, comprises an aerial surveillance system, blast-proof perimeter walls, seismic sensors to protect the vaults from tunnelling, surveillance cameras, baggage scanners, burglar alarms, and a visitor-tracking system.
The police perceives threats to the treasure not only from international professional thieves but also from “terrorists looking for international mileage, anti-social elements who want to create communal trouble and Left extremist aligned atheist groups”. The treasure can also pose a risk to the people of the city if robbers resort to an external attack to loot the wealth.
Given this threat, the Modi government plan may, in a way, bring relief to the people of Thiruvananthapuram. The plan has been mooted to check the country’s chronic trade imbalance by reducing the economically crippling gold imports, which accounted for 28% of the country’s trade deficit in 2013. The scheme to be launched next month envisages melting the gold and loaning it to jewellers to meet their growing demand.
Besides the Padmanabhaswamy temple, the Sree Krishna temple at Guruvayoor in Thrissur district and the Lord Ayyappa temple in Pathanamthitta district have huge gold reserves in Kerala.
Since the plan’s announcement earlier in April, the Hindu Aikya Vedi and the Shiv Sena, among other Hindu outfits, have stridently opposed it. Both these groups have made it clear that they will not allow anybody to touch the treasures in Kerala’s temples. State Shiva Sena president Bhuvanachandran said they will chart out an action plan against temple gold monetisation after knowing the full details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheme.
The United Democratic Front government, led by the Congress, has also resisted the move. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government will not allow anybody to take away the treasures without the consent of the devotees.
Support for the scheme has come from the state BJP, which was earlier against using temple treasures for the people. The party said it changed its stand because Modi’s was the last word in the party. “Now that Modiji has spoken, we will go by it,” said BJP state president V Muralidharan. “He is our leader and we propagate his policies.”
Malayalam film star Suresh Gopi, who is all praise for Modi, has also supported the proposal, though he wants the wealth used for funding infrastructure projects in the state, such as the proposed Vizhinjam international container transhipment terminal in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led opposition Left Democratic Front is of the same view. The party said the bulk of the wealth in the temple had come from the public by way of taxes collected by then rulers and bribes and booties from the conquered states.
Opposition MLA Jameela Prakasham said the Travancore rulers had amassed wealth by taxing people heavily. Among the 300 taxes in the kingdom was one on the right to cover breasts.
This, along with the wealth looted from conquered states, went to the temple in 1750 when Marthanda Varma, founder of the Travancore dynasty, surrendered his kingdom to Sree Padmanabha Swamy, the main deity in the temple, and pledged that he and his descendants would serve the kingdom as the deity’s servants.
Historians warned that making use of the treasure may open up a Pandora’s Box, with many staking a claim on it. A member of the National Assembly of Pakistan has already claimed a right on the property, a historian who did not want to be identified said.
He said the member had even moved a private member’s motion in the Pakistan Assembly, saying that his country had a right for a share of the wealth since it was accumulated when the two countries were undivided.
Similarly, a temple in western Sri Lanka has claimed that part of the treasure in the Padmanabhaswamy temple came from it. This temple said its assets were moved to the Kerala temple after a Portuguese governor made an attempt to loot its wealth.
The historian said that even the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu could stake a claim as the Kanyakumari region was part of the Travancore kingdom. Any move to use the treasure could trigger long legal battles, he warned.
Prof M G Shashibhooshan, an authority on the temple and an unofficial consultant to the Travancore royal family, said there was no evidence to suggest that the treasure included assets from other sources, including the Travancore state treasury, which was maintained outside the temple. The assets in the temple treasury kept inside the temple came mainly from the offerings of devotees, he said, and from the temple’s owners, that is the Travancore royal family.
“I have gone through the temple and the royal family records known as Mathilakom records running into millions of pages, but I could not find anything that substantiated the allegation that the treasure included revenue from the state treasury,” he said.
Shashibhooshan, who has seen the treasures, said a substantial portion of it was of antique value and this should be preserved for posterity. Another sizeable amount of the gold is required for the daily and periodical rituals in the temple.
“What are left are gold and silver bars,” he added. “There is nothing wrong in government making use of them but they should be used in such a manner that it will benefit the temple, which requires huge sums for the upkeep of the treasure and its day-to-day functioning. It also needs to invest heavily on providing better amenities to the devotees.”
The temple should get either interest or dividend for the investment, Shashibhooshan said, adding that it was not a bad idea for the temple to take shares in infrastructure projects like the Vizhinjam terminal, metro. “But the treasure cannot be simply taken away by the government.”
Basurendra Babu, a Leftist fellow traveller and political analyst, however, said it should go to the people. “The treasure includes assets accumulated by the then king. It should have gone to the state when he relinquished power. The state should now have full authority over the treasure.”
Babu said there was no point in keeping the gold as it is a transactable material. “Let the central government take it under the new scheme, but the proceeds from it should come to the state and the people,” he added.
The temple was being managed by a trust run by the royal family since Independence. The Supreme Court took away that control and entrusted it with a committee headed by a district judge after the treasures were unearthed on a petition filed by late TP Sundara Rajan, a former police officer who was an ardent devotee of the deity. The petition alleged gross mismanagement in the temple affairs by the royal family.
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