A black and white photo of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi holding a metal capsule has gone viral on social media with the claim that she had buried secret documents inside the capsule.

Those sharing the post on Facebook that on August 15, 1973, Gandhi sealed important public documents inside a metal capsule made of copper and steel and buried it in a well in front of Red Fort. They demanded that this capsule be dug out and the documents are made public.

AFWA’s investigation found that while Gandhi had indeed buried a time capsule outside the Red Fort on that very date, it had already been dug out on December 8, 1977, by the then-ruling Janata party government.

The viral posts are archived here and here.

A time capsule is a special container usually made of metal that is used to accommodate documents, photographs, and artefacts which have historical relevance. The container is usually made of steel or aluminium which can stand the test of time and prevent the documents from decaying even after thousands of years.

The time capsule is then buried deep inside the earth for future generations to unearth and reveal the history of the bygone era.

On August 15, 1973, Gandhi buried a steel time capsule outside the Red Fort in New Delhi. It was buried at a depth of 32 feet and contained a 10,000-word document. The capsule was to be dug out only after a thousand years.

In 1977, the Congress government was overthrown and the Janata Party came to power under the leadership of Morarji Desai. The Janata Party had reportedly promised it would uncover the documents in Gandhi’s time capsule if it came to power. And on December 8, 1977, the Janata Party government dug it out.

While it was extensively reported that Indira Gandhi’s time capsule was unearthed by the Janata Party government, its contents still remain a mystery.

Per a 2013 news report, academician and writer Madhu Purnima Kishwar sought information about the time capsule from the Prime Minister’s Office. The PMO, however, reportedly claimed that it had no record of the former Prime Minister’s time capsule project.

The Janata Party government never divulged details about the contents of the time capsule. According to some news reports, a few veteran journalists from the era claimed that the accomplishments of Indira Gandhi and her father Jawaharlal Nehru were the contents of the time capsule. However, there is no certainty on the topic.

Thus, we concluded that the viral post claiming that PM Modi should unearth and expose the contents of Indira Gandhi’s time capsule is misleading because it has already been dug out by the Janata Party government.

(With input from Yash Mittal)

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