The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in Delhi will now be called Prime Ministers’ Museum and Society, The Indian Express reported on Friday. The decision comes more than a year after the Nehru Museum was inaugurated as the Prime Ministers’ Museum after being refurbished.
The decision to drop Nehru’s name from the museum was taken at a meeting of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society on Thursday. In 2019, the society had been reconstituted by removing Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Karan Singh as members.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was made chairperson of the society and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh its vice-president. Other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Prakash Javadekar, V Muraleedharan and Prahlad Singh Patel were also inducted into the society as members.
The meeting on Thursday was presided by Rajnath Singh, according to The Indian Express. In a statement, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library said that Singh welcomed the proposal to change the name. In its new form, the museum exhibits the contributions of all prime ministers, the statement added.
“The executive council subsequently felt that the name of the institution should reflect the present activities, which now also include a sangrahalaya depicting the collective journey of democracy in Independent India, highlighting the contribution of each Prime Minister in nation-building,” said the statement, according to The Indian Express.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on Twitter that the decision shows the prime minister’s pettiness and vengeance.
“What won’t Mr Modi do to distort, disparage and destroy the name and legacy of the architect of the Indian nation-state,” he said. “A small, small man overburdened by his insecurities is the self-styled Vishwaguru.”
The erstwhile Nehru Museum is housed in the Teen Murti Bhawan in Delhi. It became the official residence of Nehru after independence. Months after his death in 1964, President S Radhakrishnan had inauguarated the Nehru Memorial Museum to mark the 75th birth anniversary of India’s first prime minister. The NMML Society was set up to look over the management of the institution.
In 2016, Modi decided to refurbish the museum to include archival objects and artefacts related to all prime ministers of the country. The Congress had objected to this decision as well. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had written to Modi, saying that the move had an “agenda” to “change the nature and character” of the institution.
Despite the opposition, the Nehru Museum was inaugurated as the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, or Prime Ministers’ Museum, in April last year.
Classic case of political indigestion: BJP
The BJP on Friday defended the change in the museum’s name and said that Congress should stop politicising the matter.
The party chief JP Nadda said that reaction by the Congress is a “classic example of political indigestion.”
“The inability to accept a simple fact that there are leaders beyond one dynasty who have served and built our nation,” he said. “PM Sangrahalaya [museum] is an effort beyond politics and Congress lacks the vision to realise this.”
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Congress is levelling allegations even though its leaders have not yet visited the museum to see how the contributions and achievements of Nehru and his successors have been showcased in a much better way using technology.
“In their opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they do not hesitate to even insult their own leaders,” Trivedi said, according to PTI. “They are not able to differentiate between their own leaders and others due to ‘Modiabind’ of Modi’s opposition in their eyes.”
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