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Uproar in RS over RSS role in freedom fight

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 1600 hours Tuesday following an uproar over the withdrawal of two volumes of the 'Towards freedom' history project by the Indian Council for Historical Research.

Chairman Krishan Kant adjourned the House when his repeated pleas to restore order failed to have any impact, with the treasury benches and opposition members trading charges and counter-charges over their role in the freedom struggle.

It all began with nominate member Shabana Azami raising the issue through a special mention. The mention soon snowballed into a major controversy as the ruling party members objected to a reference made by Biplab Das Gupta of the Communist Party of India-Marxist on the links Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder M S Golwalkar supposedly had with the British rulers.

Azmi questioned the wisdom of the ICHR chairman in withdrawing the two volumes of the project. Accusing him of ''showing utter disregard and contempt for independent research'', she said the ICHR authorities had violated the independence and autonomy of that institute.

She accused the Sangh Parivar of imposing its ideology on the ICHR. She said that both Professor K N Panikkar and Prof Sumit Sarkar were reputed historians, and action should be taken against the chairman for violating the norms of ICHR.

She also appealed to the National Democratic Alliance allies to put pressure on the government not play with historical facts.

Eduardo Faleiro (Congress) said it was part of a larger conspiracy by the government to rewrite the history and glorify ''one particular community.''

Prof Biplab Das Gupta said the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to impose its monolithic view by rewriting history.

The volumes mentioned that the RSS had no role to play in the freedom struggle, he said adding that Golwalkar played into the hands of the British rulers. This prompted the BJP members to protest against Gupta.

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