Renaming Nehru Memorial: Despite relentless assault, Nehru's legacy will live on, says Congress

Congress on Wednesday hit out at PM Modi after the name of world renowned Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) was changed to Prime Ministers' Memorial Museum and Library, saying he "possesses a huge bundle of fears, complexes and insecurities, especially when it comes to our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru".

Congress on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the name of world renowned Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) was changed to PMM -- Prime Ministers' Memorial Museum and Library, saying he "possesses a huge bundle of fears, complexes and insecurities, especially when it comes to our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru".

Congress also said that despite the relentless assault, Nehru's legacy will live on for the world to see. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a tweet said, "From today, an iconic institution gets a new name. The world renowned Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) becomes PMML - Prime Ministers' Memorial Museum and Library."

A rear view of the Nehru memorial museum and library in New Delhi, India, September 24, 2015. A stately New Delhi mansion, once home to India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and now a museum to his life, has emerged as a flashpoint in the growing ideological war between his heirs and the Hindu nationalist government.REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

Targeting the Prime Minister, Ramesh said, "Modi possesses a huge bundle of fears, complexes and insecurities, especially when it comes to our first and longest serving Prime Minister. He has had a single point agenda of denying, distorting, defaming and destroying Nehru and the Nehruvian legacy. He has erased N and put P instead. That P is really for pettiness and peeve."

"But he can never take away Nehru's gigantic contributions in the freedom movement and his towering achievements in building the democratic, secular, scientific and liberal foundations of the Indian nation-state, all of which are now under assault by Modi and his drum beaters. Despite the relentless assault, Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy will live on for the world to see and he will continue to inspire generations to come," the former union minister said.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Prime Minister Narendra Modi..IANS

His remarks came after the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) was officially renamed as the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML) Society with effect from Monday by the Centre.

Congress Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore also hit out at the move of the government and in a tweet said, "PM Shastri ji created.. VP Radhakrishnanji inaugurated. Narendra Modi closed it. Nehruji lives in the hearts of INDIA."

PMML vice-chairman A Surya Prakash while taking to X (formerly Twitter) said, "Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) is now Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society w.e.f August 14, 2023 -- in tune with the democratisation and diversification of the remit of the society. Happy Independence Day."

(With inputs from IANS)