Alarmed by the proposal to make the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) showcase the government’s work, four intellectuals on Friday said any effort to steer the goal of the institution from its original purpose would be “anachronistic, inappropriate and unjustified’’. They said Teen Murti’s basic functions must not be altered.
“Teen Murti’s essential task, standing and autonomy must not be impaired or distorted,’’ said former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, actor Girish Karnad, historian Romila Thapar, and academic Ananya Vajpeyi in a joint statement.
Welcoming the renovation and modernisation plans for the museum, the signatories to the statement expressed concern over the reported plans to transform it into a “Museum of Governance” and “repurpose it to broadcast the activities of the government”.
Pointing out that the government had every resource at its disposal to build a Museum of Governance and use such an institution to display its achievements, the statement said: “The Nehru Museum was never meant to be anything other than a museum dedicated to India’s first Prime Minister, his life and his times.’’
Further, they said that this was done the world over. “All around the world, houses of significant political leaders and politician-intellectuals have been converted into museums and memorials open to the public, and these act as excellent spaces in which to educate a wider citizenry’’ about the country’s modern history and political life.
As for the Nehru Library, they said that it was in no way limited to his papers, writings or scholarship that might be described as “Nehruvian”. “To insist that these institutions are limited to one man’s role or legacy is to misunderstand both their foundational mandate as well as misrepresent their actual functioning at any point in living memory,’’ they said, vouching for the NMML’s ecumenical character, transcending differences of the Left and Right.
On Thursday, NMML Director Mahesh Rangarajan had issued a statement maintaining that the modernisation plans would keep in mind the “basic objective” of spreading Nehru’s ideas, the freedom struggle and the history of modern India. There would be special focus on the governance of India under Nehru, something “which has been largely left out in the present exhibition”.
