Foundation for the museum for all Prime Ministers of the country on the premises of the Teen Murti premises will be laid on Monday against objections from the Congress and several historians.
The Minister of state for culture Mahesh Sharma and minister of housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri will be present at the ceremony.
The new museum will incorporate the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) at the Teen Murti estate, the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed keenness to construct a museum dedicated to the legacy of all former Prime Ministers, first expressed by him in 2016. It was endorsed by a majority of the 21 members of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) at the 43rd annual general body meeting in July.
The idea has been disputed and opposed by Congress leaders and six members of the NMML society, calling it a bid to tarnish Nehru’s legacy. This was followed by the Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking the government to leave NMML “undisturbed”.
In the annual general meeting of the NMML, amendments specifying the task for having a museum for all PMs were proposed in the Memorandum of Association. The clauses proposed for the museum have been proposed to change.
Earlier the memorandum stated that the purpose of the museum was “to acquire, maintain and preserve the personal papers and other historical materials pertaining to Jawaharlal Nehru and papers relating to his life and work.”
Now, a sub-section to be added has been proposed. It reads: “To acquire, maintain, preserve and exhibit the personal papers other related papers, video audio photographs and other material relating to the lives and works of all Prime Ministers.”
NMML director Shakti Sinha said there are series of amendments proposed by the members in the Memorandum of Association. “The clauses specifying the task to have a museum for all PMs has been added, which was not there earlier. To have a museum of all PMs is in line with Nehru’s legacy,” he said.
As News 18 earlier reported, NMML will also work towards becoming a repository of documents and research related to “nationalism” and not just limited to “freedom struggle,” as nationalism is a broader term and make NMML more “encompassing”.
The work on the new museum is underway and it will contain 5000 words for each Prime Minister of Independent India. The families of former PMs, Chaudhury Charan Singh and IK Gujral have already shared photographs for the museum.
