The renaming of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi to Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) Society has elicited criticism from the Congress, which hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to destroy the Nehruvian legacy.
The news of the name change was confirmed by PMML vice-chairman A Surya Prakash on the social media platform 'X'. "Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) is now Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society wef August 14, 2023 – in tune with the democratisation and diversification of the remit of the society," Prakash said.
He added that Prime Minister Modi felt the need to set up a museum of prime ministers. Once the question as to where it could be located arose, the Prime Minister chose the NMML because it had a 28-acre estate there. "That is the ideal location because we already have Nehru Museum there and the idea was to showcase the work of all PMs of India," he said.
The decision was taken to rename the NMML to PMML by the Culture Ministry at a special meeting convened in mid-June, which was attended by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who is also the vice-president of the society.
The Congress believe the decision is a "relentless assault" on Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy. In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Mr. Modi possesses a huge bundle of fears, complexes and insecurities, especially when it comes to our first and longest serving Prime Minister. He has had a single-point agenda of denying, distorting, defaming and destroying Nehru and the Nehruvian legacy," he said.
"He (Modi) has erased N and put P instead. That P is really for pettiness and peeve," the Congress leader said.
Jairam Ramesh added that nobody could take away Nehru's gigantic contributions to the freedom movement and his towering achievements in building the democratic, secular, scientific and liberal foundations of India.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut too hit out at the decision. "You may change the name of the building but you can't change the name of Pandit Nehru that is mentioned in history. You can't change the history created by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Savarkar ji...You can't create a history like them so you are changing names," Raut, a staunch critic of the BJP, said.
However, the PMML director believes the move has diversified and democratised the museum. "Last year, the PM inaugurated the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya where we have showcased the work of all PMs. Once the remit of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library changed, it got diversified. In a sense, it got democratised. Naturally, the name of the institution also had to reflect that new name and responsibility that the institution has," he added.
