For over six months, the team at the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR), an autonomous body under the ministry of Education, were made to gather each morning to sing the national anthem. Also, images of ‘Bharat Mata’ and of former Jan Sangh president Deendayal Upadhyaya adorned the office of member secretary of the ICHR, Umesh Kadam and the ICHR conference room. This daily singing of the anthem was stopped Friday and the two images were removed from both the rooms as well. The Indian Express has reported that these steps were taken after some “objections.”
When contacted, ICHR chairman Raghuvendra Tanwar and Member Secretary Kadam confirmed that this indeed was the sequence of events developments but refused to elaborate. According to a senior official: “The singing of the national anthem started based on a verbal order last September and stopped today, also on a verbal order. There was no written order to remove images of Bharat Mata and Upadhyaya but these were removed today from both places.”
Sources said in both the rooms, images of Bharat Mata and Upadhyaya were on the wall with pictures of President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Asked about the images of Bharat Mata and Upadhyaya, Kadam said, “There was no written order (to put these images). People come and present such things and we install them at an appropriate place.” Apparently, the national anthem was sung by staff at 10 am each day in front of the ICHR library. Kadam insisted that the singing of the national anthem was “voluntary.”
Sources said that the singing of the anthem began after Kadam joined ICHR on August 11 last year. When contacted, chairman Tanwar said: “It is true that there was no proper permission (for images and national anthem). Neither from the (Governing) Council, nor from me. have no role in the removal of the images or stopping the national anthem. I have not visited ICHR office since February 10, 2023.” Tanwar added: “ICHR is a non-sectarian body. We have to maintain its sanctity.”
Kadam was teaching, most recently at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University as Professor (Chair Medieval Indian History) where he has also been Dean of Student’s Welfare. Tanwar, Professor Emeritus, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, was nominated as Chairman of the ICHR in January last year. His latest work “The Story of India’s Partition” was published in 2021 by the Government of India in both English and Hindi.
Established in March 1972, the primary aim of ICHR, according to its mission statement, is to “foster objective and scientific writing of history.”
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