Name change of Nehru memorial triggers political war of words

Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “Pettiness & Vengeance, thy name is Modi. For over 59 years, NMML has been a global intellectual landmark and treasure house of books and archives. It will henceforth be called Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society. What won’t Mr. Modi do to distort, disparage and destroy the name and legacy of the architect of the Indian nation-state. A small, small man overburdened by his insecurities is the self-styled Vishwaguru.”

Hitting back, BJP national president J P Nadda posted a series of tweets, calling the Congress’s reaction a “classic example of political indigestion”. “The inability to accept a simple fact that there are leaders beyond one dynasty who have served and built our nation. PM Sangrahalaya is an effort beyond politics and Congress lacks the vision to realise this.”

“Every prime minister has been given respect in the prime ministers’ museum and the section relating to the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, has not been altered,” he added.

Replying to Ramesh’s tweet, BJP national general secretary B L Santhosh said, “Sir, do you remember what happened to the Golden Quadrilateral Boards put out..? You removed Atalji’s (former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee) photo and then the board itself as soon as Congress came to peer in 2004. Don’t cry at the drop of a hat. Look what you had done.”

Almost a year after the PMs’ Museum was inaugurated at the Teen Murti complex, which served as the official residence of India’s first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress leader’s name has been dropped from the complex. Besides PM Modi, the NMML Society has Union ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, G Kishan Reddy, Anurag Thakur among its 29 members.

Sources told The Indian Express that the meeting where the resolution to rename NMML was introduced was attended by most members, including Sitharaman, MoS V Muraleedharan, and former Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabudhe, and the resolution was passed unanimously.

In his address at the meeting, Rajnath Singh welcomed the proposal for change in name, since in its new form the institution exhibits the contributions of all PMs from Nehru to Modi, and their responses to various challenges faced by them, said a statement by the NMML.

Built in 1929-30 as part of Edwin Lutyens’ imperial capital, Teen Murti House became the official residence of Nehru in 1948, who lived there for 16 years until his death on May 27, 1964. On Nehru’s 75th birth anniversary on November 14, 1964, the complex was dedicated to the nation as the Nehru Memorial Museum. Two years later, the NMML Society was set up to manage the institution, and has remained so since then.