Chennai: A former official connected with the publication of the "Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi" by the Centre today (Oct 28, 2004) alleged that the works had been "mauled" in the 2001 revised edition brought out during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime and demanded that it be scrapped and the original version restored by way of reprint.

"In a statement here, La Su Rengarajan, a Tamil writer and formerly the Deputy Director, Publications Division of Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which brought out the work said "a national heritage involving homage to the memory of Gandhi had been mauled" in the revised edition.

Rengarajan, who was involved in the compilation of the original edition as a Officer on Special Duty, claimed that those who revised the collections had "played a havoc".

"Insightful and highly appreciated prefaces, which gave a brilliant bird's eye view of the contents of the each volume had been eliminated wholesale, leaving the volumes an utterly rudderless conglomeration of Gandhiji's writings and speeches chronologically huddled," he alleged.

A separate volume containing all the prefaces brought out at the specific direction of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been "summarily axed", he charged.

The publications Division had also arbitrarily rearranged the volumes in uniform size of 500 pages each, giving up the previous scientific design of each volume covering a specific period for continuity of events in Gandhiji's life and freedom movement, leaving the revised volumes with an "abrupt beginning and jerky end", he said.

Hundreds of valuable items of the first edition had been omitted on the "unilateral assessment of the revisers on the false ground that these speeches and interviews were not authentic and they were in an indirect form," Rengarajan alleged.

Authenticity of all items in the original edition, direct or indirect, were thoroughly cross checked and endorsed by the Advisory Board nominated by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and headed by late Moraji Desai, he said.

Concluding foreword to the series written by Indira Gandhi, published in the original edition, had been wiped out by revisers, he claimed.