Kozhikode, March 12: The Indian History Congress Monday
said professionals should head bodies like the Archaeological
Survey of India and the National Archives of India instead of
government officials.
The tendency continues despite protests and for over a
decade the ASI has had no archaeologist as its Director
General and the National Archives have similarly been placed
under a government official with no "professional
credentials", the History Congress said.
"Not only are government officials at the head of purely
professional or academic organisations failing to appoint
professional experts, but an attempt is now being made to
control the autonomous organisations by ministries by taking
over the entire process of selection and appointment of chief
executives," it said.
"Such measures make a mockery of the autonomy of academic
institutions and immediately ought to be rescinded," it said
in a resolution adopted on the concluding day of the three-day
event of the 67th session of the Congress, the largest
organisation of historians in east Asia, at Feroke near here.
Expressing hope that serious attention would be given to
these matters by Parliament and the responsible ministers, the
Congress wanted "professional control" of the ASI and National
archives to be restored and "attempt at riding roughshod" over
the prescribed process of selection abandoned.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, March 12, 2007, 00:00