New Delhi:
The government on Wednesday said records pertaining to the imposition of emergency in India in 1975 have gone missing from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and could not be found after a "thorough search".
V Narayanasamy, minister of state in the PMO, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said "yes" to the question "whether the official record regarding the imposition of emergency in the year 1975 is not available in the PMO".
He said the PMO also could not trace the correspondence between then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on the issue.
"A thorough search was made to retrieve, trace records of correspondence between the then prime minister and the president of India relating to proclamation of emergency. However, no such records were found in the PMO," said Narayanasamy.
He said the PMO had also received a Right To Information (RTI) application over the issue.
The minister said the Central Information Commission (CIC) has sought an investigation into the matter and "ensure that these records are retrieved or traced, wherever they might be, and should be preserved appropriately for citizens to access".