India, New Delhi: On Tuesday night, government made a U-turn on the Kohinoor issue saying it will make all efforts to bring back the valued diamond. It had said in the Supreme Court that the diamond was “neither stolen nor forcibly” taken by British rulers but given to it by erstwhile rulers of Punjab.

The 105-carat stone Koh-i-Noor, believed to have been mined in India nearly 800 years ago, was presented to Queen Victoria during the Raj and is now set in a crown belonging to the Queen’s mother on public display in the Tower of London. On Monday, when the bench asked whether the government was still open to staking a claim on the Kohinoor, Solicitor General (SG) Ranjit Kumar had said, “If we claim our treasures like Kohinoor from other countries, every other nation will start claiming their items from us. There will be nothing left in our museums.”

Ally Shiromani Akali Dal was among the critics. “The government stand on Kohinoor is wrong. We are going to take it up with the MEA. The stand needs to be revised. The Punjab government will try to become a party to the case in the Supreme Court. I am also going to request the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee to take up the case,” SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra told The Indian Express. The Congress, too, had said the government must keep up efforts to bring back the Kohinoor.