With the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library officially renamed as the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society (PMML), the Congress on August 16 alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a single-point agenda of “denying”, “distorting”, “defaming” and “destroying” the Nehruvian legacy.
PMML vice-chairman A Surya Prakash on Tuesday wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) is now Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society w.e.f August 14, 2023 – in tune with the democratisation and diversification of the remit of the society. Happy Independence Day! @narendramodi, @rajnathsingh @MinOfCultureGoI.”
He also shared a photograph of the Teen Murti House.
The final step of remaming got implemented after a mid-June special meeting of the NMML Society where the decision of changing the name was taken.
Also Read: Nehru’s name dropped: Nehru Memorial Museum and Library renamed Prime Ministers’ Museum and Society
Centre’s decision to rename the library has evoked sharp reactions from the Congress as the Teen Murti Bhavan has been known to be the official residence of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Congress slams name change
The Opposition party asserted that despite the “relentless assault”, Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy will live on for the world to see and he will continue to inspire generations to come.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “From today, an iconic institution gets a new name. The world renowned Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) becomes PMML—Prime Ministers’ Memorial Museum and Library. 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.
But he can never take away Nehru’s gigantic contributions to the freedom movement and his towering achievements in building the democratic, secular, scientific and liberal foundations of the Indian nation-state, “all of which are now under assault by Mr. Modi and his drum beaters”, Ramesh said.
Also Read: BJP’s penchant for renaming things is un-Indian and it is undermining the country’s founding principles
Congress MP Manickam Tagore also slammed the government over the name change, saying “hate against Nehruji” is a “well known element of RSS/BJS/BJP/Narendra Modi”.
“PM Shastri ji created…VP Radhakrishnanji inaugurated. Narendra Modi closed it. Nehru ji lives in the hearts of INDIA,” he said in a tweet.
‘There is difference between thinking of Congress, PM Modi’
Replying to Congress’ reaction on renaming the Nehru memorial, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “There is a basic difference between the thinking of Congress party and Jairam Ramesh & PM Narendra Modi. They (Congress) think that only Nehru ji and family matter. Narendra Modi gave a respectful position to all the PMs of the country at the museum…Why did Lal Bahadur Shastri get no space there?”
“There was neither Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv Gandhi there nor Morarji Desai or Chaudhary Charan Singh or Atal Bihari Vajpayee or IK Gujral or HD Deve Gowda…When all the PMs are getting a space, it is becoming Pradhanmantri Smriti Library,” Prasad was quoted as saying by ANI.