LS clears bill to remove Congress chief as Jallianwala trustee

New Delhi: Amid verbal sparring and a walkout by the Con-gress, Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to remove the Congress president as a trustee of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust. The amended Bill replaces the Congress president with the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha to be a member of the trust. The amendment also gives power to the Central government to terminate the term of a nominated trustee before the expiry of the term without assigning any reason.

While the Congress accused the incumbent government led by the BJP of trying to negate the contribution of Congress leaders in India’s struggle for Independence and trying to rewrite history, other members of the Opposition urged the government to show magnanimity and let the Congress president continue to be part of the trust.

As of now, the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust has the Prime Minister as the chairperson, and president of Congress party, Union culture minister, Leader of

Opposition in the Lok Sabha, governor of Punjab, and the chief minister of Punjab as its members. Opposing the Bill, Congress member Gurjeet Aujla said the government wants to re-write history by removing the Congress president from the trust. He criticised the BJP and its associated organisations for not taking part in the freedom struggle. “This government wants to distort history, destroy history. You cannot remove the sacrifice of the Congress to the country’s freedom struggle. You have not made contributions to the country’s freedom struggle. The Congress party has made sacrifices. How can you remove its name from the trust,” Mr Aujla said.

Responding to the objections raised by the members, Union culture minister Prahlad Patel said that national memorials should not be politicised. “It is our belief that politics should be kept away from the national memorials, which is why the amendments were brought to the 1951 Act. National memorials cannot be political memorials. We are not here to erase history but create history. We do not want to rewrite history but review history so that those who are left out can be recognised,” he claimed.