Author: Coomi Kapoor
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 13, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/30778.html
Eminent historian Ramachandra Guha admits
that in researching for his just released history of post-independent India,
India after Gandhi, he was handicapped, as were other historians before him,
by the fact that he had no access to the papers of both Jawaharlal Nehru and
Indira Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi, who is the trustee for the Family's documents
has denied everyone permission to view them. This would be perfectly legitimate
if the papers concerned only the prime ministers' private lives. However,
much of archival material on Nehru and Gandhi, which has been classified as
private, deals in fact with their official work. This is because both prime
ministers preferred to work from their homes rather than the office in South
Block. Consequently, all papers filed at their residences were appropriated
by their heirs. Guha feels a PIL on this issue should be considered to decide
whether the documents have been wrongly classified.
