Let’s de-ideologise Ministry: Jaipal

The Culture Ministry is perhaps the only ministry other than HRD, which came under the spotlight, for the NDA government’s attempt to p...

The Culture Ministry is perhaps the only ministry other than HRD, which came under the spotlight, for the NDA government’s attempt to promote ‘cultural nationalism’. Therefore, it was not surprising that the new Culture Minister, S.Jaipal Reddy, said he will focus on ‘‘de-ideologising culture’’ and disseminate culture through ‘‘scientific objectivity’’.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Reddy said, ‘‘India has an ancient and composite culture and the need is to preserve all its heritage and project it in the right historical context.’’

In an attempt to detoxify culture from ‘‘saffronisation’’, Reddy said: ‘‘I would like to emphasise that we will insist on scientific objectivity while projecting our cultural heritage and we will not introduce ideological factors in the Culture Ministry.’’

The Culture Ministry had come under scrutiny in the past for several reasons — the controversial Harappan Gallery in the National Museum for its ambiguity in interpretations in the manual; questionable excavations conducted by ASI; the hostile takeover of a new management of the IGNCA; apart from others. Reddy did not react directly to these posers, though he said: ‘‘The recent past is well-known. There is no question that scientific objectivity was adversely affected then.”