JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Government's controversial project to write the history of villages and towns in the State was launched here on Thursday amid considerable fanfare. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje did not attend the flagging off ceremony for the pet project of Education Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari despite her return here after her New Year vacation.

However, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh— otherwise an unusual visitor to Jaipur as he himself confessed— graced the occasion. The presence of Mr. Singh and Gyanprakash Pilania, Member of Parliament and patron of Jat Mahasabha, at the venue ensured balancing of the caste factor.

Mr. Tiwari was all praise for Mr. Singh who was described as "Thar ke asardar Sardar Jaswant Singhji" (The effective chieftain of the Thar region). On his part, Mr. Singh offered his services to the project as "Jaswant Singh of the village Jassol", his native place in Barmer district. "What is left of history if `sant, surma and sati' are excluded?" he asked.

There were slogans praising Mr. Singh, Dr. Pilania and Mr. Tiwari in the auditorium of the Sawai Man Singh Medical College, filled with a captive crowd of partymen. Mr. Tiwari himself called out the slogan "Jai Jai Rajasthan" for the crowd to repeat.

Mr. Tiwari, rather happy over the reaction the project could evoke ever since its announcement by him on New Year Eve, did not fail to bring in the Rajasthan angle to the history project, already under criticism from the opposition Congress for its "amateurish" as well as "partisan" approach.

The project -- to be carried out over a year's time with the help of 50,000 school teachers, village elders, wise men and balladeers -- is to write the history of 41,000 villages and 186 towns in the State. The project is also to critically examine the contents of "Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan" authored by the British agent to Rajputana, Col. James Tod, in the 19th Century. In a statement here Pradesh Congress Committee president B.D.Kalla termed it as a "waste of public money".

"I have been flooded with calls and letters ever since the announcement of the project," Mr. Tiwari told the audience. "Until the tiger writes its own history the history written by the hunters will prevail," Mr. Tiwari said denouncing the histories written in the past. "It is not to benefit any caste, group, religion or a person," he said brushing aside the Congress criticism.

"My friends in the Congress see an RSS hand in everything. If writing the history of the villages is an act to promote Hindutva, we don't mind it," Tiwari said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail