New Delhi, Feb. 17 :     Basudev Chatterjee, co-ordinator and an editor of 'Towards Freedom', an Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) project, found himself locked out of his office today by the institute chairperson. With Chatterjee's 'dismissal', the ICHR sinks deeper into the controversy triggered by the withdrawal of two volumes of modern history edited by Sumit Sarkar and K.N. Panikkar. 'ICHR chairman B.R. Grover asked the durwan to lock Chatterjee's room on the ground that his job is finished since the volume on freedom struggle he has edited has already been published. But Chatterjee is still project co-ordinator,' a colleague said. The ICHR, however, said Chatterjee's service was discontinued because of erratic attendance. Tension mounted at the council this evening as academics, students and teachers gathered outside to protest against the 'arbitrary, fascist' activities of the government. This morning, Chatterjee went up to his room to find it padlocked. He wrote a strong protest letter to the chairman and got his room opened. But, in the afternoon, after Chatterjee had left the room, it was bolted again. 'Once again there is a lock on the door,' said a friend. Chatterjee has edited a volume on the 1937 Congress ministries. 'It is a monumental work,' said a historian. But the ICHR has ignored the volume, which has not been released officially, in contrast with the way the ICHR had released some earlier volumes. 'The volume edited by Parthasarathi Gupta was released in a proper fashion in Parliament Annexe,' a historian said. The ICHR is caught between the saffron lobby led by Grover, close to the Sangh parivar, and liberal historians. Left-wing historians hit the ceiling after the council asked the Oxford University Press to stop publication of the volumes on the freedom struggle edited by Sumit Sarkar and K.N. Panikkar, two stalwart modern historians. The volumes are part of the 20-year-long 'Towards Freedom' project started in the late seventies with S. Gopal as general editor. The Oxford University Press will now have to await the verdict of a three-member review commission, about which historians harbour reservations, before it can proceed with the publishing. 'The members on the commission have nothing to do with modern history. How can they judge our work?' asks Sumit Sarkar. The faculty had smelled a rat the minute human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi installed Grover as ICHR chairperson. A 'mediocre' historian, Grover had served the Sangh parivar well during the Babri Masjid dispute and had continued to defend the demolition at least as late as 1997 at the World Archaeology Congress in Croatia. 'Joshi brought him to ICHR as his stooge,' said an academic. Grover in now passing the buck to the review commission which said it was yet to read the volumes. Joshi maintains the Centre has nothing to do with the decision to withdraw the two volumes. 'This is how the Sangh parivar functions - through a whisper campaign,' a historian said.