Years after Sonia Gandhi took Nehru papers, PM museum set to seek view on ownership

The “issue” of Sonia Gandhi having reclaimed a part of the private papers donated by the Gandhi family was discussed in  detail in the AGM held on February 13, which was also attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, among other members.

During the meeting, the members were informed that an “internal enquiry” was done on the matter which revealed that in March 2008 M V Rajan visited PMML (on behalf of Sonia Gandhi) to segregate private papers and official papers in the Nehru collection and all personal papers identified by him were sent to Sonia Gandhi in 51 boxes on May 5, 2008.

Even as some members were of the view that all those papers should be recalled, there was no clarity on their legal status. A consensus was then reached to seek legal opinion on issues such as “ownership, custodianship, copyright, and the use of these archival collections”.

According to NMML records, the papers reclaimed by Sonia Gandhi include letters exchanged between Nehru and Jayaprakash Narayan, Edwina Mountbatten, Albert Einstein, Aruna Asaf Ali, Vijaya Laxmi Pandit and Jagjivan Ram.

A questionnaire emailed to Sonia Gandhi’s office on PMML’s decision to seek legal opinion on “ownership, custodianship and copyright” of private papers, including those of Nehru, didn’t elicit a response.

The Nehru papers were the first set of private papers collection obtained by the PMML and the transfer was facilitated by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF), housed on the same Teen Murti campus as NMML, on behalf of his legal heir, Indira Gandhi, who remained the “owner” of these documents until her demise in 1984. As per her mandate, the papers were intended for safekeeping rather than an outright gift, so they couldn’t be opened to scholars without her permission.

Later on, a substantial collection of Nehru papers post-1946 period were also handed to PMML by Sonia Gandhi, who also reiterated that these papers were intended for safe custody only, The Indian Express has learnt. After the death of Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi was the Trustee-Guardian of the legal heirs of the former.

The PMML has the largest collection of private papers in the country, originally belonging to some 1,000 personalities of modern India, encompassing the entire spectrum of its leadership. Its archives have details of FIRs registered in Delhi from as early as 1861. Many of these papers are on microfilm, others are paper archives. When various sets of personal papers were handed over to the institution, conditions were set by respective donors on their declassification — which went up to 30-35 years in some cases, or till the time the subject is alive.

Sources in the PMML said the majority of the members feel that the embargo on disclosing private papers, often imposed by donors, should not be indefinite and that an upper limit should be established. The issue of embargo imposed by donors will be among those on which the PMML will seek legal opinion.

The AGM held in February was the first one held after Nehru’s name was dropped from the museum’s name and it was renamed as the Prime Ministers Museum & Library.