The notion that the Indian government considers its citizens’ gold “idle” and would like to get its hands on personal holdings of the metal, as well as bullion held in temples, has been circulating in the media for several years now. What’s interesting about today’s article, is that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has introduced concrete plans to make it happen.
Bloomberg reports:
There’s about 20,000 metric tons of gold stashed away in India’s temples and households — more than four times the amount that’s held in Fort Knox in Kentucky — and Narendra Modi wants to get his hands on it.
India’s prime minister on Thursday unveiled three state-backed plans to try to tap the stockpiles of the precious metal to trim physical demand and reduce imports by providing people with alternative avenues for investment. At an event in New Delhi, Modi announced the formal start of a gold-deposit plan, a sovereign-bond program linked to the metal’s price and introduction of locally minted coins, some bearing the face of Mahatma Gandhi.
Also known as the “please trade in your gold for paper promises and government tokens” plan.
“The expectations from the schemes in the short term must be tempered as it will take time to build the infrastructure and products and for customer acceptance to grow,” said P.R. Somasundaram, managing director at the World Gold Council in India. “We should see this announcement and launch as a strong indication of an intention to put gold at the heart of the financial system and make it work for the Indian economy.”
Yes it will take a while to properly propagandize the population, and if that fails, there’s always coercion or violence.
Meanwhile, I remain confused as to why it would be advantageous to place a barbarous, pet rock relic, owned merely for tradition at the “heart of the financial system.”
The estimate for nationwide holdings of about 20,000 tons came from Modi at the event as he described the stockpiles as idle. That compares with holdings of 147.3 million ounces (4,582 metric tons) squirreled away in the U.S. Bullion Depository in Kentucky, according to data on the U.S. Mint’s website.
Fort Knox gold reserves are also supposedly “idle” and no one seems to be complaining about that.
Under the gold-deposit plan, investors can deposit a minimum of 30 grams with banks to earn interest, and at maturity either redeem the gold or cash, according to a government statement in June. Banks holding the bullion will be free to sell or lend the gold to jewelers, thereby boosting supply. The planned sovereign-bond issue will be open to investors from Thursday up to Nov. 20, the Reserve Bank of India said on Nov. 3.
Of course, none of this should be surprising. Government is merely doing what government does best: Citizen Theft.
For related articles, see:
India’s Central Bank Will Sell Gold on the Market in Exchange for Gold at the Bank of England
Gold Smuggling Increases 7x in India and Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade
Indian Temples Fight Back Against Government Gold Grabbing Plot
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Let’s hope that a majority of Indian’s don’t fall to gullibility over this.
India’s citizens’ gold. American citizens’ firearms. It is equally important that both remain in private, non-governmental hands, and not the hands of their governments. And for the same reasons.
I’ve been to India a couple of times and know native Indians pretty well. Gold is to Indians what guns are to Americans: so deeply ingrained into the cultural and psychological fabric of the people that even those who don’t hold them are not keen to change their ideas about their importance.
One things Indians have in common with Americans is they are usually healthy skeptics when it comes to government promises. This campaign is going to land with a massive “thud”. Indians could have taken all that wealth and deposited it in banks long ago. They didn’t because they’re smarter than that.
What I love about this is the universal law that shows us the more they try to squeeze the gold or guns from our hands, the tighter we hold on to it. Action and reaction.
Someone needs to remind the prime minister of the story of the monkey and the jar of nuts. Every Indian must know it. Mr. Modi has his filthy mitts all over Indians’ nuts. He should let go before he loses his hand.