An image of a purported newspaper clipping of English-language daily The Hindu from 6 June 1967 is going viral on the internet with the claim that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had appealed to citizens to stop buying gold in 1967.
What is the claim?: The viral claim states that on 6 June 1967, PM Gandhi asked Indians to halt gold purchases due to a severe foreign exchange crisis, terming the sacrifice as "national discipline." News outlets, including Times Now, and various leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), such as the Karnataka BJP spokesperson Vijay Prakash, have amplified this Indira Gandhi gold appeal story to draw parallels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent appeal to pause gold buying.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Photo: Screenshot/X)
Is it true?: No. The newspaper clipping being circulated as proof is digitally altered. The Hindu has officially clarified that the viral front page is fake and does not belong to their historical archives.
How did we find out?:
We conducted a reverse image search as well as a keyword search for the viral news article, “Don't buy gold, Indira tells people; appeals for 'national discipline'.”, however, we were not able to find any older instances of the clipping.
We then checked the social media channels of The Hindu to verify the authenticity of the 1967 newspaper clipping and found an official statement posted by The Hindu on X (formerly Twitter) debunking the viral image.
The publication explicitly stated: "A digitally altered image purporting to be a front page of The Hindu from June 6, 1967, is currently circulating on social media. We wish to clarify that this is not an authentic page from our archives. The Hindu urges readers to exercise caution and verify before sharing."
We also reached out to The Hindu's library, which stores the archives of the news publication, and they confirmed that the viral image was an altered one.
We also found an X post by a journalist of The Hindu, B Kolappan, who shared the original front page of the publication from 6 June 1967.
Some context:
This claim surfaced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally in Secunderabad, Telangana, on 10 May 2026.
Amid the ongoing West Asia conflict and soaring global crude oil prices, PM Modi urged Indians to adopt cost-cutting measures to protect the country's economy.
Highlighting the heavy pressure on India's foreign exchange reserves, he appealed to citizens to postpone non-essential gold purchases—including buying gold for weddings—for at least a year.
The image is fake, but did the Indira Gandhi government enforce restrictions on the buying of gold?:
Yes, instead of an "appeal," the government at the time used legislation to curb India's appetite for gold. In 1968, under Indira Gandhi's government, Finance Minister Morarji Desai pushed through the Gold Control Act, which prohibited citizens from owning gold bars or coins.
The aim was reduce the demand for gold, stop smuggling, and protect the Indian Rupee following the border disputes with China.
The act was repealed in 1990.
Conclusion: A fabricated newspaper clipping is being shared to push the false claim that Indira Gandhi appealed to Indians to stop buying gold in 1967.
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