Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday sought to put to rest all speculations that thousands of files related to Indian history have been destroyed by the Narendra Modi Government, but not before putting the onus on the previous UPA regime for the controversy. Replying to members of Opposition benches in the Rajya Sabha, Singh said the process of identifying the files was done by UPA between August 2012 and May 2013 and that it was not the first time files have been destroyed as it has been done as per the mandate of manual of office procedure.
Amid controversy over destruction of 11,000 files including ones related to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the Home Minister assured the House that it will not allow tampering or destruction of any link with the country’s glorious history and allayed fears of members that BJP-led NDA Government was trying to destroy continuity of India’s history.
Replying to queries raised by members on the Minister’s statement made on July 11 on alleged destruction of 1.5 lakh files in his Ministry, Singh assured the House that no file relating to Mahatma Gandhi, former President Rajendra Prasad, former Prime Minister lal Bahadur Shastri or the last Indian Viceroy lord Mountbatten has been destroyed.
The Home Minister lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for asking the Government to scan all files and digitise them. “The total number of assessed files is 1,17,102 and those to be destroyed are 44,177, those archived are 27,879 and as many as 45,646 files are lying in our sections. Important files after 25 years are sent to the National Archives and files are destroyed on the basis of the Manual,” he informed the House.
Members of Congress and left quoting reports tried to pin down the government on the issue which also led to acrimonious exchanges between the opposition and treasury benches when Singh said their party was the only non-Congress party that has got a clear mandate and members should not question its intentions.