It was the Heritage Corridor construction work near the Taj Mahal in Agra that dominated the 45-minute-long meeting between UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura and Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan.Speaking to the media after his meeting with the minister, Matsuura said: ‘‘We discussed the construction work near the Taj and expressed UNESCO’s concern over it. The Union Ministry was quick in taking action and we appreciate that.’’ He also informed the Minister that a team of technical experts from UNESCO will also visit the World Heritage Site (WHS) and review it themselves.Speaking to The Indian Express, Jagmohan said: ‘‘We welcome UNESCO’s interest in the Taj Mahal and will welcome their team whenever they wish to visit us. We also assured the UNESCO Director General that all their guidelines pertaining to WHS are being followed.’’Other than the Taj Mahal, the Union Minister also advocated India’s case for a better participation in the conservation and restoration of monuments and heritage sites at an international level. The Minister told Matsuura: ‘‘We wish to contribute technical expertise to the conservation of temples in Cambodia and the rebuilding of the Bamiyan Buddha.’’At the meeting, the Minister also appealed to the UNESCO team to ‘‘support our case in retrieving Indian antiquities and other heritage properties that were taken away before Independence.’’ Jagmohan had earlier written to the Ministry of External Affairs, seeking their help to retrieve the 11th-century Saraswati idol now housed in the British Museum in London. The Minister will soon also be writing to the MEA to retrieve the Kohinoor from the United Kingdom. Other antiquities which the Union Minister wants back include the Maharaja Ranjit Singh kalgi and the sword of Maratha ruler Shivaji.The Minister said: ‘‘Antiquities taken away from one country fall under the the International (UNESCO) Conventions on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit imports, exports and transfer of ownership of cultural property, 1970. This convention encourages negotiations of national wealth and heritage to its country of origin. We are asking UNESCO to help us with this.’’India is one of the signatories of the UNESCO convention and negotiating the restitution of such antiquities is possible.Jagmohan also told Matsuura: ‘‘India has a lot of intangible heritage, in terms of folk music and dance, tribal folk lore and fables and this needs to be documented and preserved. We wish to participate in UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ programme that encourages and conducts the preservation and restoration of intangible heritage.’’
