Sethu affidavit: ASI blames ‘clerical error’

More than three weeks after it created a major political storm, it has still not been established how the controversial lines were incorporated in the now withdrawn affidavit filed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the Supreme Court on the Sethusamundram project.

The Culture Ministry has been claiming all along that it had deleted the controversial lines before passing on the file to the ASI, and that somehow the corrections made by it were not carried out. It even suspended two officers of the ASI pending an inquiry and also asked ASI Director General Anshu Vaishya to explain her role in the matter.

It is now learnt that Vaishya has attributed the mistake to “clerical errors” on the part of the ASI. The DG is understood to have submitted a reply to the Ministry on this line.

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However, the Ministry is said to be not entirely satisfied with her reply and has asked for more clarifications, sources said. The DG is expected to send another reply by next week.

The original affidavit by the ASI contained some controversial remarks on Lord Ram which created a huge furore last month. The affidavit had to be withdrawn following the uproar and was replaced with a new one.