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Shimla institute was used to implement RSS agenda: report

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI, DEC. 11. The ongoing review of a project of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, has thrown up evidence which suggest that the research centre, under the previous NDA Government, was used to further the RSS agenda, be it the foreign origin issue of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, or the "single foundational vision of India's composite dynamic and pluralistic rainbow civilisation."

Since 1999, the IIAS showed a "single-minded commitment" to inventing the "non-existent single `foundational vision' of our composite... civilisation," says an interim report submitted by D. Bandopadhyaya on the institute's "Project on the Study of Indian Civilisation."

Though the review, ordered by the Human Resource Development Ministry in October, is far from complete, Mr. Bandopadhyaya put the IIAS project under the scanner as it was the most expensive at Rs. 1.38 crores. In his covering letter to the Ministry, he said: "An analysis of the implementation of this project clearly exposed the infirmities and weaknesses of the institute."

Questioning the academic credentials of some of the "scholars" associated with the project and with a view to ensuring that the material to be published as part of the project did not have any communal tinge, the review committee recommended that "all the manuscripts under different stages of publication be put on hold forthwith till they are evaluated and reviewed by competent scholars."

`Foundational vision'

Mr. Bandopadhyaya said the search for "foundational vision" was based almost entirely on antiquity and religion, practically excluding other relevant historical factors. Such being the case, "one is at a loss to give any rational finding about the progress of the project. The initial attempt was to convert myths into realities, fiction into facts, folklore into history and rituals into scientific practises. Such an approach would tend to justify the savage rituals of human sacrifice, sati, female infanticide, rigidity of the caste system, including untouchability, and other obscurantist rituals..."

Basing his conclusions on the annual reports of the institute, Mr. Bandopadhyaya informed the Ministry that the progress of the project was "far from satisfactory and the manner it is being executed clearly shows evidence of academic cronyism verging on malfeasance."

While seeing no rationale in continuing with the project in its present shape, he suggested salvaging it since Rs. 80 lakhs had been spent.

The annual reports also showed that the institute had organised a national seminar on who could govern the country in the midst of the debate on Ms. Gandhi's foreign origin. As per the Annual Report (2001-02), a seminar on "Religion, Nationalism and Literature" was organised in February 2002 where one of the issues discussed was whether a "non-native can take over the governance of his/her adopted country."

While there was nothing in the annual report to suggest the political overtones of the seminar, the issue caught the review committee's eye primarily because the IIAS did not list it among the seminars organised by it.