Updated on Monday, March 12, 2007, 00:00 IST

Kozhikode, March 12: The Indian History Congress Monday said professionals should head bodies like the Archaeological Survey of India and the National Archives of India instead of government officials.

The tendency continues despite protests and for over a decade the ASI has had no archaeologist as its Director General and the National Archives have similarly been placed under a government official with no "professional credentials", the History Congress said.

"Not only are government officials at the head of purely professional or academic organisations failing to appoint professional experts, but an attempt is now being made to control the autonomous organisations by ministries by taking over the entire process of selection and appointment of chief executives," it said.

"Such measures make a mockery of the autonomy of academic institutions and immediately ought to be rescinded," it said in a resolution adopted on the concluding day of the three-day event of the 67th session of the Congress, the largest organisation of historians in east Asia, at Feroke near here.

Expressing hope that serious attention would be given to these matters by Parliament and the responsible ministers, the Congress wanted "professional control" of the ASI and National archives to be restored and "attempt at riding roughshod" over the prescribed process of selection abandoned.

Bureau Report