Bhopal: Anger as tainted expert' Arun Sharma gets Padma

Bhopal: The conferment of this year’s Padma Sri on archaeological advisor to the Chhattisgarh government, Arun Kumar Sharma, has sparked much fury amongst his fraternity.

Sharma has been accused by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) of tampering with an ancient Buddhist site. He himself is a former member of the ASI.

The country’s top body had said that Sharma “spoiled” the authenticity of structures excavated from the Sirpur Buddhist site — a fifth Century AD complex in the east Chhattisgarh district of Mahasamund. The excavations were carried out in the year 2000.

Sharma was granted a licence in the late 1990s by the ASI to undertake excavations at the Buddhist site, which was billed as the only ticketed monument in all of Chhattisgarh.

But in a confidential letter from September 7, 2010 — addressed to the ASI headquarters at New Delhi — the Raipur branch of ASI expressed serious concerns over Sharma’s reconstruction of the excavated structures at the site.

“The licensee (Mr Sharma) is imposing his own thoughts onto the excavated remains. Sometimes, the original architectural parts are being cut to get the desired size”, the letter claimed.

The note also refers to other reminders that were sent to the Chhattisgarh government, seeking to dissuade Mr Sharma from undertaking conservation works.

In a separate communication dated June 21, 2010, to Chhattisgarh government, the Raipur unit of ASI, had sought to halt “invalid structural conservation works, so that the glorious history of Sirpur can be saved from deliberate intervention and manipulation”. Incidentally, Sirpur is yet to be accorded a World Heritage site status despite several visits by Unesco teams over the past several years.