Congress on Monday demanded a white paper from Narendra Modi government on its order to weed out old files and paper, and attacked it on the issue latching on to reports that files related to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were destroyed on his directions.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already stated that out of the 11,000 files destroyed to weed out files and papers, none belonged to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Alleging that it was being done to “hide its distant past from the new generation”, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed, however, insisted that an “impartial investigation” needs to be carried out to determine what kinds of files were destroyed and at what level this decision was taken.
He, however, hastened to add that he was not levelling any allegation and making the demands on the basis of media reports but “since an allegation has been made, the government should clear the doubts”.
“There is a talk that old files belonging to a few days before and after Gandhi’s assassination carrying information were also among the files destroyed under this order.
Government has said the files relating to the assassination of Gandhi were safe and secure in the national archives.
“But reports say that the files related the Cabinet meeting immediately after Gandhi’s assassination, the then Home Minister Sardar Patel’s raising questions on the assassination and his view on banning RSS have also been destroyed,” Mr. Ahmed said wondering over the “alacrity” with which the government acted after the order to weed out such files was issued.
To a question as to why the UPA government, which was in power for ten years, could not archive these important files, Ahmed merely said, “a white paper will clear all these things. That is why I am making this demand.”
CPI(M) MP P Rajeev had a few days back in Rajya Sabha alleged on the basis of media reports that 1.5 lakh files including those relating to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were destroyed on directions of the Prime Minister.
