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‘You’ve to build history… Modi not capable': Opposition reacts to museum name change
Congress and other Opposition parties resorted to sharp criticism after the museum's name was officially changed, alleging it was done to erase Nehru's legacy
History needs to be built and it needs to be scripted and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is not capable of creating it, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Wednesday gave a sharp reaction after the central government renamed the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) as the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML). She further suggested the government to draw a larger line in the politics, ‘instead of demeaning and changing the name of something that was dedicated to Nehru’.
Also read: ‘Come to the museum, you will understand,' PM museum vice chairman on name change row
“Pandit Nehru built and laid the foundation of modern India. He built the IIMs, AIIMS, IITs, ISRO, and institutions that have kept liberal democracy alive in this country... He (PM Modi) will be remembered very negatively in history,” she told news agency PTI.
The museum was officially renamed on August 14 after a special meeting was held in June, coming to a resolve that NMML Society will change its name to PMML Society.
Notably, the museum is situated in Teen Murti Bhavan – the official residence of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Political parties, especially Congress, started criticising the move right after the museum's name was officially changed, alleging that the PM Modi-led central government only had the ‘agenda of denying, distorting, defaming and destroying the Nehruvian legacy’.
“Teen Murti Bhavan was not the residence of other PMs. It is a historical place where Nerhuji stayed from the partition till his death. They (Centre) can’t erase Jawaharlal Nehru as he is in the soil of the country,” RJD leader Manoj Jha told news agency PTI.
Earlier, the top official of the museum suggested those who criticised the move to pay a visit to the place to see how the ‘Nehru question’ has been handled. Vice-chairman of the museum's executive council A Surya Prakash made a distinction between NMML and PMML.
“If you have seen the Nehru museum earlier, you will get an idea of how the Nehru-Gandhi family, which was in charge of the institution for many years, had set up that museum. If we were to reflect on that, it would give you an idea on what kind of thinking they had projecting Nehru ji," he said.
