Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 20, 2004
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=39528
Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar
Joshi on Monday made it clear in no uncertain terms: The January 5 attack
on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) is condemnable but
the reference to Chhatrapati Shivaji by author James Laine is equally deplorable.
''Such references, based on no evidence
nor facts, need to be strongly repudiated by our intellectuals. There ought
to be a probe to find out motive behind the same,'' Joshi told reporters.
He described the attack on BORI
as an onslaught on the country's heritage of knowledge. ''The fact that
150 people from outside come here and attack the institute in an organised
manner shows laxity on the part of the law enforcing agency,'' he said.
Joshi flew in here late on Sunday
night to survey the damage caused in the attack on BORI by around 150 members
of the Sambhaji Brigade, in protest against Laine's book Shivaji: A Hindu
King in Islamic India. Laine had acknowledged help of some historians associated
with BORI.
Joshi also slammed the title. ''The
book may have been withdrawn from the market but 10- 20 years ahead if
it continues to exist, it will get the status of reference material. Laine's
references need to be strongly repudiated at intellectual and academic
level.''
