By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram


Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Temple Affairs Minister V S Sivakumar attend a high-level meeting of police and bureaucrats to discuss the treasure find
Sharp divisions have arisen within civil society groups after court-appointed inspectors unearthed treasures with an estimated value of more than Rs900bn ($20bn) from the underground vaults of the Sree Pramanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
Hindu activists say the treasure trove of gold, diamonds and precious stones should be vested with the temple built by the Travancore royalty while others, including prominent intellectuals like Dr Sukumar Azheekode, argue that the valuables belong to the people and should be utilised for the public good.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has suggested that the treasure should be kept in a museum on the temple premises on a permanent display. He also insists that it remains Lord Padmanabha’s.
Eminent jurist V R Krishna Iyer, however, said a national trust overseen by a parliamentary commission should be formed to take over the riches and use them for the “betterment of humanity.”
“God’s wealth belongs to the people, not to the king. It’s meaningless to say that it belongs to Hindus or any particular religious community,” said Iyer, the first home and law minister of the state who retired as a Supreme Court judge. “A mechanism should be devised to ensure that the benefits of it reach the poor and the needy and not the rich.”
A mob attacked the house of U Kalanadhan, president of the Kerala Yukthivadi Sanghom, an organisation of atheists, who demanded it be used to public purposes. He wanted the government to take over the treasure trove immediately as the erstwhile Maharajahs amassed them using taxpayers’ money.
The seven-member panel of inspecrtors, including two observers who are retired high court judges, hope to find more valuables when the last vault is opened this week. They have not been able to open the chamber as it is fortified with huge iron walls. Believed to be containing most of the wealth, it was last opened 136 years back.
The proceeds would be enough to wipe out the entire public debt of the state accumulated over years, which is estimated at Rs750bn and for funding Kerala’s ambitious infrastructure projects like ports, airports and expressways. But a section of historians dismisses the valuations as overstretched.
Historian Dr M G Sasibhooshan said the wealth of the royalty could have come mostly from the exports of pepper, once described as black gold that attracted Europeans, Arabs and the Chinese to the Kerala shores. He cites the huge collection of foreign coins unearthed from the cellars to prove his point.
The servants of Padmanabha, as the kings describe themselves, ruled the kingdom comprising southern Kerala and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu for 1,200 years without any serious foreign invasion until India’s independence in 1947 and the accession of the princely states that followed.
The kings kept the riches at the feet of the presiding deity Lord Padmanabha in secret cellars, away from the eyes of foreigners. The treasures also could include offerings of devotees from across the country.  
The Hindu Aikya Vedi or the Hindu Unity said the treasures belong to the temple and they should be kept where they are now after cataloguing. The Supreme Court while allowing a stay on a Kerala High Court verdict asking the state to take over the assets has tasked the inspectors with only to prepare an inventory.
Its general secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan said the wealth can be utilised for the welfare of the Hindus alone. Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam general secretary Vellappally Nateshan also said it is up to the Hindus to decide on it and it should not be appropriated for development activities.
The Bharatiya Janata Party also warned of protests if the state government takes over the assets of the temple. Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the present head of the royal family, refused to react to the controversy.
Surprisingly, G Sudhakaran, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and former temple affairs minister, also opposed takeover by the government or the state temple board.
Temple Affairs Minister V S Shivakumar said the government would follow the orders of the Supreme Court. 
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy held a meeting of senior bureaucrats and police officers and reviewed the security situation. The police have taken over the outer security of the temple and deployed two platoons of armed forces while the employees have demanded the army to take over the security in view of increasing threat after the treasure find.
The search team’s finds included a 4ft-tall gold statue studded with emeralds, 18ft-long gold necklaces and jewel-encrusted crowns.
Several temples in India have billions of dollars worth of wealth as rich devotees and royalty donate gold and other precious objects, and run schools, colleges and hospitals.
The Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh is reported to have 3,000kg of gold, a third of which it deposited with the State Bank of India last year.