Congress slams Centre over renaming of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said that whatever the government does, the name of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru cannot be wiped from the memory of the people

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday slammed the Centre's decision to rename the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library as the Prime Ministers Museum and Society. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a Tweet said: "Pettiness and Vengeance, thy name is Modi. For over 59 years the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) has been a global intellectual landmark and treasure house of books and archives. It will henceforth be called Prime Ministers Museum and Society."

"What won't (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi do to distort, disparage and destroy the name and legacy of the architect of the Indian nation-state. A small, small man overburdened by his insecurities is the self-styled Vishwaguru," added Ramesh.

Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari also took a jibe at the Narendra-Modi-led government. Tewari said, "I wish those who want to erase Jawahar Lal Nehru's contribution to freedom struggle and building of Modern India would once read Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History to fathom the depth of Nehru. Legacies don't get erased by renaming buildings."

Addressing reporters at the party headquarters in the national capital, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said that whatever the government does, the name of first Prime Minister Nehru cannot be wiped from the memory of the people. "Nehru is responsible for the development of the country. It was his vision which has brought India this far, he led the industrial revolution after independence. And despite all your efforts to remove his name from the walls, you cannot remove his name from the memories of the people," Vallabh said.

One cannot become big by indulging into petty politics as Nehru is a towering figure, he said. Vallabh further said that the Congress hails the role of all Prime Ministers, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which they (the BJP) want to erase. The Congress leaders' remarks comes a day after the decision was taken at a special meeting of the NMML Society on Thursday, which was presided over by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is the vice-president of the Society.

The Society has Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman, and Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, G. Kishan Reddy, Anurag Thakur, among its 29 members.The museum was inaugurated at the Teen Murti complex last year in April, which served as the official residence of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from 1948 till his death in 1964.