The Union Culture Ministry will construct a museum on Prime Ministers on the Teen Murti Estate here within a year, Minister Mahesh Sharma said on the occasion of the project’s ground-breaking ceremony here on Monday.
The museum dedicated to all Prime Ministers including incumbent Narendra Modi will come up within the 25.5-acre estate, but separate from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) buildings.
Mr. Sharma said no part of the NMML on two acres of land on the premises would be touched during the construction of the new museum. “The land belongs to the government and while some of it has been given to the NMML, 23 acres is still left and we have decided to use it,” he said.
This is being seen as the Centre deciding to build the museum on its own after the NMML Society deferred a vote on a proposal to amend its memorandum of association to build the museum under its own aegis.
Congress view
The proposal for amendment made at its annual general meeting in July has been deferred in view of opposition from members like Congress leaders Mallikarjuna Kharge and Karan Singh, who felt the proposed amendment would dilute the legacy of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, after whom the NMML is named.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said at the meeting that a consensus was needed to make any amendments.
A day after the meeting, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh disputed NMML Director Shakti Sinha’s statement that the proposal for the museum was given the go-ahead by a majority of society members. “Nobody gave approval to anything at the NMML Society Meeting,” he said.
“Amendments being proposed were not approved by the NMML Society at the last annual general meeting. The museum will now be built under a Government of India project,” a member of the Society told The Hindu on Monday.
“A museum dedicated to all the Prime Ministers in the vicinity of the memorial of the country’s first Prime Minister was envisaged to enable the visitor a holistic understanding of the continued thread of leadership, initiatives and sacrifice that have shaped our nation since independence,” said an official release.
“The proposed museum will include an orientation space, souvenir shop, space for organising talks/lectures and discussions, seminar halls, auditorium, workshop areas, library, documentation room, laboratory and archive areas.”
It added, “The museum would be a single institution where the visitors can learn about the Prime Minister's Office, its evolution, role and centrality to governance at the Union level, and also about the individual Prime Ministers.”
