Union Minister for Home Affairs (MHA), Rajnath Singh, on Friday clarified in Rajya Sabha that no file relating to Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, and Dr Rajendra Prasad, lal Bahadur Shastri or lord Mountbatten was destroyed by his Ministry during a recent clean-up exercise.
The Minister, in an attempt to put a lid on the recent controversy relating to destruction of documents having historical importance, by his ministry clarified that 52 files and 67 sets of exhibits containing 11,186 pages relating to Mahatma Gandhi assassination are in the safe custody of National Archives.
And, the 11,000 files so far destroyed by MHA were done in accordance with the rules of record keeping. The matter relating destruction of important and historical documents was raised by CPI-M MP P Rajeev in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday who, quoting media reports, said that on the directions of the Prime Minister, the MHA has destroyed 1.5 lakh files including files contained historic documents like the record of lal Bahadur Shastri giving his salary to the calamity fund, India's first President Rajendra Prasad refusing to take his pension, and a file which had the minutes of a cabinet meeting held just before the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Union law Minister Ravi Shankar denied PM had given any such instructions.
Making a suo-moto statement on the allegations, Rajnath Singh said that even though the MHA has destroyed 11,000 files in weeding out exercise, none of them pertained to Gandhi, and others, and all destroyed files are well recorded and documented. He elaborated that the MHA took cleaning up of its old files and papers after Cabinet Secretary had issued a written order to weed out all files and papers in accordance with the rules of record keeping within 3-4 weeks.
This order was based on a discussion of Prime Minister with Secretaries of the Government where PM had stressed upon improving the culture and environment including hygiene and cleanliness of the work space.
"In accordance with the instructions, the files lying in the different sections of the Ministry of Home Affairs were reviewed and a total of 11,100 files were destroyed, during the period 05.06.2014 to 08.07.2014. None of the 11,100 files so destroyed, relate to Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. This is also to inform that none of the files so destroyed, related to either Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Shri lal Bahadur Shastri or lord Mountbatten," Rajnath Singh said.