The sengol installed in the new Parliament building was listed in the register of the Allahabad Museum as a stick with golden polish, an investigation by The Wire has revealed. Earlier, The Wire had reported that the sengol had not been on display at the Anand Bhawan Museum in Prayagraj but at the Allahabad Museum. The PM had claimed during the inaugural event of the new Parliament building that it was the current BJP-led Union government that had taken the sengol out of Anand Bhavan where he alleged it had been labelled as a walking stick and not given due importance. The BJP had further alleged that the sengol had been labelled as Nehru’s golden walking stick.
The Wire has accessed a page from the General Accession Registrar (GAR) of the Allahabad Museum that shows that the item was listed as a “stick with golden polish”. The Wire had also previously spoken to a retired curator of Allahabad Museum, Dr Onkar Anand Rao Wankhede, who had said at the time that the item was labelled, “Golden Stick gifted to Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru” and not as golden walking stick.
Additionally, the remarks section of the GAR at the Allahabad Museum referring to the sengol says, “Stick (138.4 cms) covered with thin brass sheets with golden polish. 3 pieces.” It also appears from the entry that the sengol was transferred on permanent loan to the National Museum in New Delhi in November last year.
The sengol was last seen at a public event in 1947 when it was handed to India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, by Kumaraswamy Thambiran, the deputy head of the Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam, a Saivite mutt in Tamil Nadu. The sceptre has become an object of controversy after Modi announced the Union government's decision to keep it on display at the new Parliament building.
The inaugural event came under severe criticism after 19 Opposition parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and others, announced their decision to boycott it. They had called the Prime Minister inaugurating it an insult to the office of the President of India, as the President is the head of the state.
During a recent visit to Vellore, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the people of Tamil Nadu must elect 25 MPs from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as a gesture of thanks for the installation of the sengol in the Parliament.