PM Museum to get replicas of Morarji’s Nishan-e-Pakistan, Bharat Ratna from Gujarat Vidyapith

Vice-Chancellor of the Gujarat Vidyapith Dr Harshad Patel told The Indian Express: “As per the MoU, we will be making replicas of the Bharat Ratna and Nishan-e-Pakistan and sending it to be displayed at the PMML. While our museum is also open to visitors, footfalls are naturally lower than what it is at PMML.”

The decision is said to have been taken after Director of the PMML Ashwani Lohani visited the Morarji Desai gallery at the Vidyapith on February 2 and a meeting was held between him and the vice-chancellor.

Desai is the only Indian PM to have been awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, given to him on May 18, 1991, a few months after he was conferred the Bharat Ratna in March that year.

The Gujarat Vidyapith is the sole custodian of all the original personal effects, awards, state gifts, letters of honour, books and papers belonging to Desai after he willed it to the institution that he headed for over three decades. The exhibits include his clothes, over a dozen walking sticks including one carved in ivory, scrolls, his phone book, acupressure equipment, a box charkha, a miniature copy of the Quran, a pair of gold scissors when he inaugurated the Delhi branch of Tokyo bank and several gifts from countries he visited.

Vice-Chancellor Patel says: “In his will dated May 4, 1991, he has willed all his personal belongings, his books and all that he had, to the Gujarat Vidyapith.” Bound by this will, the Gujarat Vidyapith has agreed to give only replicas.

“It is not my decision to part with anything that is a property of the Vidyapith. The proposal for such sharing will have to be cleared by the Vidyapith mandal (governing council),” Patel said.

The PMML is learnt to have requested replicas of the Nishan- e-Pakistan and the Bharat Ratna which have a medal each and a citation, besides some “papers”, top sources said.

Lohani told The Indian Express: “We have looked at the possibility of showcasing certain items at the Prime Ministers’ museum.” The process is likely to take 2-3 months, said sources.

“We have a cupboard full of his letters and will soon be classifying them and sharing with them (PMML), those of national importance,” said Dr Patel.

Desai took over as the PM in 1977, in the post-Emergency elections, defeating Indira Gandhi-led Congress. He headed a government of the Janata Party, which had the Jana Sangh, now BJP as an ally. During his 1977-79 tenure, India had just emerged stronger after the 1971 Bangladesh war.

The MoU signed on July 15, 2024 between V-C Patel and the then director of the PMML Sanjiv N Sahai, which is valid for five years, enables a “collaborative relationship” between the two institutions allowing each other “access” to their respective research facilities, including digital resources, “subject to their respective institutional policies and regulations”.

The plan for this exchange took root after the V-C visited the PMML and saw that the section on Desai “had scanty material”.

The Vidyapith library boasts of a collection of 60,000 reading materials which include rare manuscripts, books, periodicals and so on.