Centre targeting officers who reveal truth about Keeladi: Madurai MP

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Madurai: The Union govt is deliberately targeting archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna, who led the early phases of the Keeladi excavations, for exposing truths about Tamil heritage, said Madurai MP Su Venkatesan.
Talking to reporters at the CPM's office in Madurai on Tuesday, Venkatesan said the archaeologist's transfer to the documentation wing in UP's Noida was the latest in a series of actions aimed at suppressing the significance of Keeladi's findings.
"In 2017, Amarnath Ramakrishna was removed from the Keeladi excavation team and denied permission to write the report on its findings. Only after a legal battle, he was allowed to submit it.
But even two years after submission, the ASI did not release the report," he said.
He added that the ASI's recent request for additional scientific evidence — after assuring the Parliament that the report would be released within 11 months — was a delaying tactic. "If more evidence was needed, they should have said so in the court or the Parliament," he said.
Venkatesan said the Centre was sending a message that any officer who reveals uncomfortable historical truths would be sidelined.
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"This is not just an administrative transfer. It is a part of a pattern of intimidation," he said.
Meanwhile, DMK state student wing secretary R Rajeev Gandhi on Tuesday announced that a protest would be carried out in Madurai on Wednesday, against the continued delay in releasing the Keeladi excavation report
"The findings from Keeladi prove the existence of a literate, urban Tamil civilisation more than 2,500 years ago.
But the Centre is afraid it will undermine its Indus-Saraswati narrative. While the state govt funded nine phases of excavation and published the results, the Centre has sat on the report submitted by its own officer," he said.
The protest, led by DMK Rajya Sabha MP N Siva, will be held at Viraganoor Bypass and will see participation from students, youth, and party functionaries. "The protest will expose the Centre's double standards — praising Tamil in the public while burying its history in private," Rajeev Gandhi added.

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