Almost a year after the Prime Ministers’ Museum was inaugurated at the Teen Murti complex which served as the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress leader’s name has been dropped from the complex. The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) will now be called Prime Ministers Museum and Society. The decision was taken at a special meeting of the NMML Society on Thursday, presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is the vice-president of the society. The NMML Society has Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman, and Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, G Kishan Reddy, Anurag Thakur, among its 29 members. Built in 1929-30 as part of Edwin Lutyens' imperial capital, Teen Murti House was the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief in India. In August 1948, it became the official residence of independent India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who lived there for 16 years until his death on May 27, 1964. Soon after, the government decided that the Teen Murti House should be dedicated to him and house a museum and a library. On Nehru's 75th birth anniversary on November 14, 1964, President S Radhakrishnan dedicated the Teen Murti House to the nation and inaugurated the Nehru Memorial Museum. Two years later, the NMML Society was set up to manage the institution, and has remained so since then. However, in 2016, PM Modi had mooted the idea of setting up a museum dedicated to all Prime Ministers of India on the premises. Despite opposition from the Congress, the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya was built on the campus, and inaugurated by PM Modi on April 21, 2022. Former PM Manmohan Singh even shot off a letter to PM Modi, raising concerns over an “agenda” to “change the nature and character” of the NMML and the Teen Murti complex. In his address at the meeting on Thursday, Rajnath Singh welcomed the proposal for change in name, since in its new form, the institution exhibits the contributions of all PMs, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, and their responses to various challenges faced by them, said a statement from the NMML. Describing the Prime Minister as an institution, Singh emphasised that all the colours of a rainbow should be proportionately represented in order to make it beautiful. “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. The refurbished museum begins at the renovated Jawaharlal Nehru museum building, now updated with technologically advanced displays on the life and contribution of the first Prime Minister. Housed in a new building are the stories of other 13 Prime Ministers of independent India – with the displays highlighting how they navigated the nation through various challenges. “Thus, it recognises all the Prime Ministers, thereby democratising the institutional memory,” said NMML Executive Council Chairman Nripendra Misra. Misra also explained the need for change in name by emphasising that the Prime Ministers Museum expresses the nation’s deep commitment to democracy, and so, the name of the institution should reflect its new form.
