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The Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh informed the Lok Sabha today that the book titled “Journey of a Legend” published by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has not been released and the Indian Council for cultural Relations has sealed and safely locked all the copies available with it in secure premises. This was done in light of an administrative inquiry which revealed that the photograph on page 1 of the book showing Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and President, ICCR seated together on a sofa may be a cut and paste job.
The Government does not plan to verify other publications brought out by the ICCR. Verification of the authenticity of Council’s publication is the responsibility of the ICCR itself, which is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Minister further added that no officials of the ICCR were involved in deciding the photographs and the text of “Journey of a Legend”. All the photographs and text were personally selected by the President of ICCR who had also approved the dummy copy before printing. President, ICCR had also written the introduction to the book. The Editorial Board of the book was headed by President, ICCR and other members of the Editorial Board were chosen by President, ICCR.
The Minister informed that the Government is considering further action in the matter.
The Minister was replying to a question by Shri Badiga Ramakrishna and Smt. D. Purandeswari.
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