Arnab Goswami, 3 others replace dissenting members of Nehru Memorial Society

New Delhi, Nov 3: The Narendra Modi-led government has reportedly appointed Republic TV's Arnab Goswami as one of the three new members of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.

The four new members are TV news anchor Arnab Goswami, Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, former journalist and head of Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts board Ram Bahadur Rai and former diplomat S Jaishankar. Their tenure extended till April 2020.

Goswami's appointment came after the government decided to remove economist Nitin Desai, professor Udayan Mishra and former bureaucrat BP Singh. A report by the Economic Times had said that the sacked three members had been known to criticise the government openly, particularly on the issue of the museum for all PMs taking shape in NMML.

Desai had opposed the idea of a new museum for all PMs at Teen Murti Bhawan, stating that 'NMML was established for the very fine purpose of academic excellence and should preserve its character.'

The outgoing members are economist Nitin Desai, bureaucrat BP Singh and Professor Udayan Mishra. All three had at some point questioned the idea of a museum for all PMs.

The NMML Society meets once a year and the head of the NMML reports to the Executive Council constituted by the society.

The NMML is a part of the Teen Murti Bhavan in Delhi, which was the home of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Last month, on 16 October, the central government had laid the foundation in the backyard of the 25-acre estate to build a museum of all his successors.

In August this year, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had written a hard-hitting letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning him on the Centre's plans to set up a national museum for all prime ministers in the Teen Murti Bhawan complex in Delhi.