ASI rushing for gold, but not for historical sites: Nitish

Bihar CM says ASI showed no interest towards repeated proposals sent by the state for excavation at ancient sites

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on MOnday took a dig at the Centre on the continuing excavation at Unnao following a dream of a seer and said, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) ignored state's request for digging historical sites more valuable than 1,000 tonnes of gold.

"This is ridiculous," Kumar told reporters when asked about the ongoing excavation of the ASI at Daudiakala village of Uttar Pradesh in the hunt of 1,000 tonnes of gold on the basis of a dream of seer Shobhan Sarkar.

"This will give a wrong message. Are they interested in taking the country to an era of orthodoxy?" he said, criticising the Centre's decision to dig the fort of Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh for gold.

The Bihar Chief Minister said while the ASI immediately went to Unnao for excavation, it showed no interest towards repeated proposals sent by the state for excavation at ancient sites.

Excavation at Balrajgarh in Madhubani, which could have helped in revealing information about a 2,200-year-old civilisation, was shelved without any reason, he said.

There are many other historical sites in the state which needs to be excavated to unravel truths about our history, but the ASI does not care for them, he lamented.

"Every person dreams, but is it the government's duty to chase people's dream?" Kumar wondered.

He also criticised both rivals Rashtriya Janata Dal and BJP and said, "They are also seeing dreams for Bihar, but did not do much when they had time for it."