Modi Govt. guilty of chicanery in destroying old official files: Manish Tewari

Congress leader Manish Tewari on Tuesday charged the Narendra Modi-led Government of practicing an element of chicanery while destroying old files, and also questioned the need for pursuing such an exercise.

"That is not enough, what is required is that the government must come clean as to what is the criteria which was adopted for weeding out files. Who authorized the weeding out of those files, why were those files not transferred to national archives. What was the need to destroy those files, incinerate them or shred them after all, they are a part of India's historical records," Tewari told ANI.

"They could have been shifted to the national archives, that is why the archives are there, or they could have been declassified and put out in the public space so that researchers could use them for archival value and for historical research. So, therefore, there seems to be an element of chicanery in the manner in which the files were identified and ostensibly destroyed," Tewari added.

"So, if the files of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination files are safe, then the government should lay them on the table of the house and should make them public and put them on the Home Ministry's website," Tewari further added.

The Congress Party on Monday reportedly demanded a White Paper from the Modi-led Government on its order to weed out old files and paper, and attacked the government based on reports that files related to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were destroyed on his directions.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has already clarified in parliament that out of the 11,000 files destroyed to weed out files and papers, none belonged to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

The ruckus on this issue follows after CPI(M) MP P Rajeev had a few days back in Rajya Sabha alleged on the basis of media reports that 1.5 lakh files including those relating to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were destroyed on directions of the Prime Minister.