By TCN Special Correspondent,
New Delhi: In a statement, various historians, members of civil society groups and concerned individuals have demanded for the publication of ASI Report on Ayodhya excavations.
“The Ayodhya judgment of the Allahabad High Court has relied on a Report, submitted to the High Court in 2003, by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) after its excavations on the site, as ordered by the Court. As citizens of India, or persons of Indian origin, or friends of India, we demand that this Report should be published forthwith and be available for scrutiny in the public domain, especially to scholars, as it is now a part of the public judicial record,” reads the statement.
The statement further says, “We learn that two archaeologists, D. Mandal and Shereen Ratnagar, who critiqued this Report in a book published in 2007, were served with a contempt of court notice by the High Court of Allahabad this summer. So far as we know the orders in the contempt case are yet to be passed. If that be so, the world at large is equally constrained to silence. Such a judicially ordained zone of uncertainty curbs freedom of expression and fair comment.”
The signatories has requested to the Honourable Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and the Honourable Chief Justice of India to kindly look into this matter.
Among the renowned personalities who have signed the statement include, Prof. Uma Chakravarti, Historian, formerly at Delhi University, Prof. K. Satchidanandan, former head of Sahitya Academy, Anand chakravarti, retired Professor of Sociology, Delhi University, David Wengrow, Reader in Archaeology, University College, London, Jocelyn Orchard, Archaeologist, Birmingham University, Jyoti Punwani, journalist, Mumbai, Nandini Manjrekar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Mogen Trolle Larsen, retired Professor of Assyriology, Copenhagen University and Ajay Dandekar, Institute of Rural Management, Anand (Gujarat).