MHA Destroyed 1.5 Lakh Files: CPM

The Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha accused the Centre of attempting to rewrite history by destroying historic files, including that of a Cabinet meeting after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi -- a charge which the government bluntly denied.

NEW DELHI: The Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha accused the Centre of attempting to rewrite history by destroying historic files, including that of a Cabinet meeting after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi -- a charge which the government bluntly denied.

“Over 1.5 lakh files were destroyed, they contained historic documents like the record of Lal Bahadur Shastri giving his salary to the calamity fund, and first President Rajendra Prasad refusing to take his pension,” CPM leader P Rajeev said during Zero Hour on Wednesday.

Recently, the Ministry of Home  Affairs (MHA), as part of a spring cleaning, had weeded out the old files.

Rajeev claimed that the files also included one “which had the minutes of the meeting of a Cabinet meeting held just before the news of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination was formally announced”.

He claimed that this was an attempt to revise history.

“Why was the Prime Minister in a hurry to destroy historical documents? The government is trying to rewrite history. They want to destroy evidence of the role of some Hindutva forces in assassination of Mahatma Gandhi,” Rajeev alleged.

He was joined by the other Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, and the Samajwadi Party.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad denied the charges.

“This whole allegation against the Prime Minister is completely wrong. I deny it completely and emphatically. That is all the position of the Government,” he said.

This was however not enough to satisfy the Opposition, with the TMC demanding that the PM himself should clarify.

With the Opposition benches refusing to yield, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien had to make an appeal. “You should maintain some decorum, I am also a human being, don’t make me tense over these issues,” he said.

With the House in uproar, he adjourned it till 2 pm.

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