Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Congress minister Manish Tewari on Monday sparred on the Lok Sabha floor over the rewriting of the history of the Indian Council of Historical Research.
Responding to Tewari’s charge, Pradhan said the Modi government is giving due credit to figures like Alluri Sitarama Raju and Zorawar-Fateh, whom the Congress government did not acknowledge enough.
During the Zero Hour discussion, Tewari said there’s a contradiction between what the ministry is saying and what the ICHR is saying—while the minister has declared that they are not rewriting history, the ICHR has said they are writing a 12-13 volume set on the comprehensive history of India.
“One is the updation of history, which is a respectable closure concept recognised worldwide. The other is rewriting history with a very pernicious and pretentious concept because this is a process of rediscovery of the current narrative by pinning it on certain historical moorings. In this method, anybody who has tried to rewrite history from Bismarck onwards till Zia-ul-Haq has failed,” Tewari said.
In response, Pradhan said that there was no intent to rewrite (history) by just “filling the gap” with events that do not find mention in history. He gave the example of unsung heroes like Zorawar and Fateh Singh, the two sons of Guru Gobind Singh, who passed away during the freedom struggle.
“Under the leadership of Guru Gobind Singh, 1,500 people gave their lives for the freedom struggle in 1913,” said Pradhan. “Does this country not deserve to know about the heroic deeds of a tribal freedom fighter like Alluri Sitharaman Raju?"