Legacies Don't Get Erased By Renaming Buildings: Cong Slams BJP For Changing Name Of Nehru Museum

Congress has come down heavily on the BJP after the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society housed in Teen Murti Bhavan premises was renamed by the government as Prime Ministers' Museum and Library Society on Friday.

The grand old party said that legacies don't get erased by renaming buildings."Those who do not have any history, they have gone to erase the history of others. The ill-fated attempt to change the name of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cannot belittle the personality of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India and fearless guardian of democracy," Congress President Kharge tweeted.

"This only shows the low mentality and dictatorial attitude of BJP-RSS," he said.

Congress General Secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "Pettiness & Vengeance, thy name is Modi. For over 59 years Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) has been a global intellectual landmark and treasure house of books & archives. It will henceforth be called Prime Ministers Museum & Society."

"What won't Mr. Modi do to distort, disparage and destroy the name & legacy of the architect of the Indian nation-state. A small, small man overburdened by his insecurities is the self-styled Vishwaguru," Ramesh said.

Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said that India's destiny was crafted in the Teen Murti Bhavan. "The architect of India's post-independence glory was our first PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Erasing his legacy by changing the name of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library is a petty act, which only further diminishes the stature of the current regime," Venugopal said on Twitter.

"India's every success is achieved on the foundation of Nehru ji's vision. India knows that, and removing his name from a museum will not change the revered stature that Nehru ji enjoys in every Indian's heart," he said.

Congress MP Manish Tewari slammed the Centre, saying legacies don't get erased by renaming buildings. "I wish those who want to erase Jawahar Lal Nehru's contribution to freedom struggle & building of Modern India would once read Discovery of India & Glimpses of World History to fathom the depth of Nehru," he said on Twitter.

Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said, "You can remove (Jawaharlal Nehru's) name from the boards but you can't remove the respect which people of this country have for him."

"Nehru Memorial Museum and Library is the original name, but now you are changing it into a museum of all Prime Ministers, it's fine but you can still keep the name Nehru Memorial because he was the first and longest serving Prime Minister...why can't we leave the past in the past and acknowledge what has happened and move on...the spirit of compromise seems to be missing, it is all about knocking things down," Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said.

Built in the British era, Teen Murti Bhavan served as the official residence of the first Prime Minister of India soon after Independence.

"Pt. Nehru lived here for more than 16 years until his death on May 27, 1964. This building was so familiar with Jawaharlal Nehru's name that Teen Murti House and Jawaharlal Nehru became more or less synonymous. Therefore, after his death, the government of India decided to convert this house into an appropriate memorial to perpetuate Nehru's eternal passion for enlarging the frontiers of knowledge and enriching the human mind," according to the website of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

It was dedicated to Nehru's memory on his 75th birthday in 1964 by the then president for housing a museum and a library to encourage, support, and patronise higher learning and free intellectual inquiry.

However, the move to rename Society comes nearly a year after the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya was inaugurated.

In a special meeting of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society (NMML), it was resolved to change its name, the Culture Ministry said on Friday.

The meeting was presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is the vice president of the Society, it said.

In his address at the meeting, Singh "welcomed the proposal for change in name", since in its new form the institution exhibits the contributions of all prime ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi and their responses to various challenges faced by them, the ministry said in its statement.

Describing Prime Ministers as an institution and comparing the journey of various Prime Ministers to the varied colours of a rainbow, Singh emphasised that "all the colours of a rainbow have to be proportionately represented in order to make it beautiful".

"Thus the resolution has given a new name, respect to all our previous prime ministers and is democratic in content," it said.