ICHR stops financial aid to History Congresss

Action after its criticism of PM's remarks on plastic surgery

Stoking a fresh controversy, the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) has stripped the Indian History Congress of its entitlement of Rs 5 lakh financial assistance granted every year for organising its annual session.

To give effect to its decision, the council recently amended the funding rules and withdrew the special status that the Indian History Congress enjoyed since the day of the ICHR’s established in 1972.

With this, the ICHR brought the country’s oldest body of the professional historians on a par with those set up at the regional level for all purpose including grant of funds.

The Indian History Congress was set up in 1935 by a group of eminent historians including Mohammad Habib, R P Tripathi and Maheshwari Prasad during British rule.

The action comes almost a year after the 80-year old historians body criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks on plastic surgery in ancient India and passed a resolution at its annual session here in Delhi, cautioning against “combining myth and history”.

The Indian History Congress is scheduled to hold its annual session from December 27- December 29 in West Bengal.

The office-bearers of the historians’ body are wondering how to arrange funds to meet the expenditure as the ICHR was learnt to have sanctioned less than Rs 4 lakh grant for the upcoming event, according to sources.

“Withdrawal of the special status through amendment to the rules effectively means that it is no more binding on the ICHR to release a maximum Rs 5 lakh grant to us for organising our annual session,” Aligarh Muslim University’s professor and secretary of the Indian History Congress Ishrat Alam told Deccan Herald.

The allocation of grant to the History Congress for organising its annual event will depend on the discretion of the ICHR, he added. The Indian History Congress had received Rs 5 lakh for organising its annual event last year.

“I don’t know how we will manage our expenditure this year. Let’s see. Our application for this years’ grant is under consideration of the ICHR,” Alam said. Y Sudershan Rao, who recently tendered his resignation from the post of the ICHR chairperson, refused to comment on the issue over phone and suggested to send an e-mail when contacted.