Centre recasts Nehru memorial society

The Executive Council comprises president of ICCR Lokesh Chandra as chairman, former editor and BJP member M.J. Akbar as vice-chairman.

April 29, 2015 02:55 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:31 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the head, the Nehru Memorial Museum Library Society (NMMLS), considered a Congress legacy, has been reconstituted to include 34 members, and eight new members to the Executive Council.

An order dated April 27 announced Home Minister Rajnath Singh; Finance Minister Arun Jaitley; Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani; Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma; Dr. Karan Singh; Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys; Centre for Policy Research president Pratap Bhanu Mehta; NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy; former ISRO chief Dr. Kasturirangan; academic Nayanjot Lahiri; Prasar Bharati Chairperson Surya Prakash; former Foreign Secretary M.K. Rasgotra; columnist Swapan Dasgupta, and a member of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, as some of the new members to the society.

Five-year tenure

The 34 members of the society will have a tenure of five years.

The Executive Council comprises president of ICCR Lokesh Chandra as chairman, former editor and BJP member M.J. Akbar as vice-chairman, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Nitin Desai, Surya Prakash, the financial adviser of the Ministry of Culture, an ex-officio member, and Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan as director. Chandra was in news for calling Modi ‘god incarnate’.

Congress fiefdom

Regarded as a Congress fiefdom, one of the last decisions of the Congress-led UPA, with barely 48 hours left for the announcement of election results in 2014, was to extend the services of director Mahesh Rangarajan, originally for three years to 10 years. Previous NMML directors have served till the age of 60, and by extending Rangarajan’s tenure for 10 years, the Congress had ensured that he would continue till his retirement.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had stepped down as president of NMML last year.

Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday chaired the 41st AGM of NMML, with all the new members present and said, the society’s work should expand to various Indian languages to reflect the diversity of the country.

Quoting the Prime Minister, an official release said, NMML should reflect the thoughts of India’s great leaders such as Pt. Nehru, on contemporary themes such as good governance.

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