LS Members demand return of Kohinoor

New Delhi: Members cutting across party line in the Lok Sabha on Thursday made a forceful plea for bringing back iconic diamond Kohinoor from the UK and offering it to Lord Jagannath temple in Puri supporting the views that diamond was not gifted to the British but was obtained from Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s successor under duress.
The issue was raised during the Zero Hour by BJD Member Bhartruhari Mahtab citing letter written by the then political agent of Lord Dalhousie in the court of the Maharaja. The letter written in 1949 says that when Maharaja Ranjit Singh was breathing his last, he had expressed his last wish which was to donate Kohinoor to Lord Jagannath.
After his death his successor, Maharaja Duleep Singh, who was a minor then, was made to gift the diamond to the Queen Victoria.
Mr Mahtab said the gift was not of cheerful volition as has been claimed but was made under duress, so it was the duty of the Government to restore Kohinoor where it should belong to–Lord Jagannath. He said according to purans, Kohinoor was no other diamond than the Puranic Syamantaka Mani possessed by Lord Krishna, and this diamond can be possessed either by god or women without any harmful impact.
He gave the example of the return of the Sword of Tipu Sultan to the country after it was bought by fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya in an auction.
Mr Mahtab said he did not mean that the Government should avail of the services of the liquor baron to get Kohinoor back but it should make all efforts to obtain it.
Mr Chandu Majra of the Akali Dal said the stand taken by the Culture Ministry in the Supreme Court was shameful.
Ms Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP sought to put the record straight regarding the Government’s stand on the Kohinoor in the apex court, saying the media had wrongly reported that the Culture Ministry held that the diamond was a gift to Queen Victoria.
She said the Solicitor General was only telling about the position in archival documents, which was reported as stand of the government. The fact was that the Government had so far not presented its stand in the court on this issue, she said. (PTI)