New Delhi: After 11 days of digging for the 1,000 tonnes of gold at the Daundia Khera village in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, it’s Peepli Dead now. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has hit a dead-end in the digging and doesn’t seem interested in continuing with it. Formally, the site has nothing very special even in terms of archaeological value, said BR Mani, additional director general, ASI. Informally, the local seer, Shobhan Sarkar, who had dreamt of the treasure and had convinced Union Minister of State Charan Das Mahant to get the site excavated, perhaps had a stomach disorder and was having a bad dream. What is more appalling is the plight of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) which had surveyed the site at the behest of Mahant and indicated presence of non-metallic substance underground. The GSI report later became the Magna Carta, frequently flashed at the doubting Thomases, mainly in the media, to assert the veracity of the seer’s dream. According to recent reports from the site, the ASI team had dug to the bedrock, where the GSI report had indicated likelihood of metal finds, and found nothing. As the drama unfolded over days, a frequently changing narrative provided a phantasmagoric background to the entire episode.
What started as the golden dream of a local seer went on from a zealot minister bringing in teams from the GSI and ASI to a regular Page One slot in the national as well as global media. As the frenzy assumed epic proportions, the ASI dug for the remains of the local 19th century king’s palace, then for the remains of the Buddhist monasteries as mentioned by Chinese pilgrim Hieun-Tsang, who visited the area in seventh century, and more recently for the weapons used in the 1857 mutiny. But all they got was nothing more than a few pottery pieces, glass bangles, pieces of a hopscotch game, small idols and pieces of a wall. Only five days ago, Union Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch had said, “We have a report from the GSI (Geological Survey of India) which says that there is alloy in this area. Alloy can be anything. I cannot say whether it is gold, silver or steel.” Ruling out a treasure hunt in Unnao, Katoch had said, “There can be guns or idols. We are trying to locate the weapons used by Indians in the mutiny of which we don’t have any in our museum or stores. We are trying to find something which is connected to the mutiny and used by the Indians.” Raja Rao Ram Bux was the ruler and was a freedom fighter who was involved in the mutiny. There may be a lot of his weapons and things lying there below the ground,” she added. All those hopes are dead now. The dream is over and India has woken up to reason. After 11 days later.
Bureau Report
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