Parliament Museum, stalled over content, likely to open by April—with 9 themes

Starting from 6th Century BC, to the rise of Mahajanapadas, large kingdoms or republics that flourished across Northern India, the museum will demonstrate India as the mother of democracy since early times. Sources say that down the line, panchayats and democratic set-ups in tribal communities will also be showcased.

What caused the delay in completing the project, however, by its earlier timeline, was disagreements over its content.

In response to an RTI application filed by The Indian Express, the Lok Sabha Secretariat—under which the museum falls—said in its reply in May this year that the National Museum Institute (NMI), a deemed university under the Union Culture Ministry, earlier tasked with coming up with the content, now has no “specific role” in the project.

According to the RTI reply, there had been 34 meetings regarding this project since April 2023 until January this year and none of them was attended by professor Manvi Seth of NMI, who was earlier heading the content team. Seth is Dean Academics in NMI and was in-charge of the work assigned for the project to NMI.

When contacted by The Indian Express, Seth said, “After the submission of the content, they (Lok Sabha Secretariat) did not tell me anything. I also did not contact them. After submission of the content, my role was over.”

Sources said that not only the content provided by her has been completely revised but the six themes she submitted have been increased to nine.

The six themes, as provided to Lok Sabha Secretariat by a team of researchers under Prof Seth, were—seeds of democracy; constitutional history of India; the structural strength of India; Indian democracy in action; successful running of India’s democracy, and the Parliament building: Past, present and future.

Now, the revised themes, which sources confirmed have been finalised, are—democratic ethos of India & the awakening of Indian political thought; the making of the Constitution; Indian democracy in action; the Parliament of India: the Cornerstone of Indian democracy; making of an Act (the legislative process); strengthening Indian democracy in the face of challenges; local governance; constitution zone; and celebration of democracy.

The Parliament Museum was inaugurated by President A P J Abdul Kalam on August 15, 2006. In 2023, all exhibits were dismantled for “modernization and upgradation”. This upgraded museum is not a part of the master plan of the Central Vista redevelopment.

Sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat said that the project’s approximate cost has reached nearly Rs 24 crore, from its earlier estimated cost of Rs 15 crore. Sources said the NMI had provided the content for free and was paid Rs 6 lakh for “miscellaneous expenses”. Now, the content is being provided by Pan Intellecom Ltd, they said. Harbir Singh Panesar of Pan Intellecom, did not respond to queries sent by The Indian Express.

When contacted, historian Makkhan Lal, an ex-AMU professor—he has worked on the Prime Ministers’ Museum—and engaged by Pan, who had raised questions on the content provided by NMI, declined to comment.

The Indian Express had reported on April 19, 2023, that Lal had recommended some changes to the content on January 24, 2023. On February 9, 2023, Seth wrote to then Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh: “It is paramount that narrative and content has to be treated as sacrosanct and thoroughly objective. No modification (addition or deletion) regarding the content is to be done by Pan on its own and without prior consultation with NMI and agreement on the same.”

On March 24, 2023, sources said, in an email to Lok Sabha Secretariat and copied to NMI, Lal flagged “the horrible quality of contents” provided by NMI and asked NMI to disclose those involved in the content preparation. A week later, on April 10, NMI shared links of articles from Wikipedia as sources of some of its references.