The Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya (the Prime Ministers’ Museum) is readying a gallery on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Culture said Thursday. A ministry statement said the gallery is scheduled to open for public viewing in January 2023. Inaugurated by PM Modi in April this year, the museum at Delhi’s Teen Murti Murg displays the life and contribution of the country’s 14 Prime Ministers — from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh. Nripendra Misra, Chairman of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the nodal agency for the museum, told The Indian Express: “The gallery dedicated to PM Modi’s term will be located on the ground floor of the museum, and the contents will be on similar lines as all other galleries.” At the time of the museum's inauguration, Misra had told the Indian Express that the museum is a work-in-progress and that in the coming months glimpses from PM Modi's first term will be added. The ground floor has galleries dedicated to former PMs Gulzarilal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh, while the first floor has galleries dedicated to Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Morarji Desai and Charan Singh. The idea of a museum dedicated to India’s Prime Ministers was mooted in 2016. The Rs 270-crore project was approved in 2018, and NMML was appointed the nodal agency for the project in May 2019. The displays comprise photographs, speeches, video clips, newspaper interviews, and some original writings. These were collected from Doordarshan, Films Division, Sansad TV, the Ministry of Defence, Indian and foreign media houses and news agencies, and the toshakhana of the Ministry of External Affairs. The leaders’ families too were requested for valuable information about them. The Ministry said the museum is also going to launch a quarterly series of lectures by eminent academicians and public leaders on the life and achievements of the Prime Ministers. The first lecture in the series, it added, will be on Atal Bihari Vajpayee and will be delivered by former President Ram Nath Kovind. Select exhibits will be displayed on such occasions, the statement added. A light and sound show is also planned in November 2022 with an opening episode on space programme in India. According to the ministry’s statement, as on September 30, the museum had received 1,15,161 visitors.
