All about time capsule Indira Gandhi buried in 1973 which Janata Party govt exhumed in 1977

The capsule which contained a document of about 10,000 words was buried at a depth of 32 feet at a cost of just Rs 8,000 and was supposed to be dug out only after 1000 years.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Monday's Rajya Sabha session brought up the topic of the time capsule which was placed inside the Red Fort to celebrate 25 years of independence.

She said that it was preserved for 5000 years and even the Parliament was not told what it contained.

A post had also gone viral on social media which requested the Modi government to dig out the time capsule which was buried about 51 years ago.

According to the post (which is now unavailable) stated that the Hindus demanded the Modi government to dig out the time capsule and find out what history is hidden in its contents.

On August 15, 1973, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had buried a time capsule outside one of the gates of the Red Fort complex in Delhi, to mark 25 years of country's independence.

The capsule was named 'Kalpaatra', and Indira Gandhi buried it in order to provide information about India's accomplishments and important historic moments for future generations.

According to media reports, the capsule which contained a document of about 10,000 words, was buried at a depth of 32 feet and was supposed to be dug out only after 1000 years.

In 1977, the Janata Party came to power and Morarji Desai became the new Prime Minister.

After the burial of the capsule received criticism over its contents, the Janata Party government exhumed the capsule on December 8, 1977.

According to media reports, the contents of the time capsule were made available in the Parliament library for MPs to have inspections and decisions.

Reportedly, journalists had claimed that the capsule's content which was never made public contained achievements of Indira Gandhi and her father Jawaharlal Nehru.

Another fact related to the capsule is that the Indira Gandhi government had spent only Rs 8,000 to bury the capsule whereas the Janata Party government spent Rs 58,000 to unearth it.

A time capsule is a metal container usually made of steel or aluminum to store papers, pictures, artefacts or other important, valuable documents which hold historical relevance.

The capsule is made in such a way that it can stand the test of time and stop decaying of the documents for hundreds of thousands of years.