ASI’s Joint Director General (Explorations and Excavations) M Nambirajan gives long rope to PAMA, a dubious NGO with sinister links and political affiliations
t has now become clear that some officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) were operating hand in glove with tainted NGO, believed to be supported by evangelicals, working with sinister designs. In an article in Organiser, I predicted that how ASI’s Joint Director General (Explorations and Excavations) M Nambirajan had given a cancellation order to PAMA (No T–17011/ 41/2019- EE) on September 3, 2021 to help his former colleague and friend P J Cherian.
In the interests of the nation and the faculty of archaeology and history, the Government should order a probe into the whole Pattanam excavation business and cancel licence to PAMA, the dubious organisation, which has far-reaching implications besides sowing seeds of secessionism. The government should also order a probe into the antecedents of PAMA and its director Cherian.
In the order, Nambirajan has cunningly excluded the name of the NGO PAMA which was granted license by the ASI for excavating Pattanam. Instead, Nambirajan has put the subtitle, Institute for the Advancement of Tran disciplinary Archaeological Sciences. Nambirajan made such a clever move to help PAMA secure a favourable court verdict, once it approaches the court against the ASI order.
The ASI order terminating Pattanam excavations did not make any serious allegation which is strong enough for the court to cancel the excavations by PAMA at Pattanam. Even if PAMA approaches the court, the judge can hardly identify any serious lapse to have occurred on the part of PAMA for the ASI to take such a convincing stand terminating its licence to excavate Pattanam. (See: https://www.organiser.org/india-news/asi-subterfuge-again-gives-advantageous-order-for-pama- on-pattanam-excavation-5764.html)
Also see:https://indusscrolls.com/rss-leader-blasts-asi-says-asi-babu-giving-long-rope-to-evangelist- ngo-pama-over-pattanam-excavation-row/
As predicted, the Delhi High Court on September 28, 2021 stayed the ASI order withdrawing approval granted to PAMA to excavate Pattanam and Mathilakam.
There is an issue of conflict of interests also. Nambirajan was appointed Member of the Muziris Heritage Project (Pattanam Excavations 2008 published by KCHR). Nambirajan, was then also Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, Thrissur Circle, Kerala. He was designated ‘Member’ in the Handbook of Pattanam Archaeological ResearchMarch-April 2008, published by KCHR.
Cherian, director of PAMA, admits in an article, The Tales Potsherds Tell at Pattanam in The Hindu on June 18, 2010 that, M Nambirajan was co-director of Pattanam excavations. The other co-directors were Dr M Nambirajan (ASI), Dr V Selvakumar (Tamil University), Dr K Rajan (University of Pondicherry) and Dr K P Shajan (United Kingdom) (The Hindu, 18-06-2010).
Link: https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/The-tales-that-potsherds- tell-at-Pattanam/article16259529.ece
In the Interim Report of Pattanam Excavations 2011edited by Cherian brought out by KCHR, Nambirajan, K Rajan, V Selvakumar and K P Shajan are shown as co-directors. See:http://kchr.ac.in/images/img/internationalFellowshipBrochure.pdf
As co-director, Nambirajan and the Pattanam team had jointly published several papers which were trashed by reputed professional archaeologists. For instance, one paper published by Cherian, Nambirajan, Selvakumar, Shajan, and Rajan, in 2010, is titled Pattanam Excavations: Interim Reports, published by KCHR, Thiruvananthapuram. Another paper is The maritime spice route that linked peninsular India with West Asia, Red Sea and Mediterranean rims; new archaeological evidence from Pattanam (Muziris). It is jointly authored by P J Cherian, K P Shajan, V Selvakumar, M Nambirajan, K Rajan and Preeta Nayar and published in Pattanam Excavations 2011(Fifth Season Field Report).
There are some serious questions about the way the ASI has given license to PAMA, which has not excavated any archaeological site. It is also true that there is not a single archaeologist in its panel to lead it nor any acclaimed archaeological report.
Besides, George Soros, a multi-billionaire, whose avowed mission is to create unrest in India and unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has links with the Pattanam project. Pattanam is bridged with Keezhadi archaeological site in Tamil Nadu, as claimed by Cherian himself (Deccan Chronicle, October 31, 2018). Keezhadi is associated with Gasper Raj with LTTE terrorist links and supports Dravidian secessionist movements in Tamil Nadu. He is also involved in multiple activities in support of LTTE, a Sri Lankan group designated by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. (Douglas C. Lovelace Jr., Esq., 2008, Terrorism: Documents of International and Local Control, Academic, OUP, Vol. 91).
By keeping under the carpet all these facts, the ASI has openly launched its campaign to help PAMA. In this exercise, it is trying to pull wool over the eyes of the Cultural Minister. The ASI is virtually castigating mocking and shamming the honourable Cultural Minister first by giving license to an NGO to excavate a highly controversial site and then by giving an order to terminate its excavations without issuing a show-cause notice.
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