Nehru Museum Renaming: Rahul Gandhi Defends Legacy, Emphasizes Work Over Name Amid BJP-Congress Row – News18

Days after the name of the Nehru Museum was officially changed to Prime Ministers’ Museum, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday, defended his great-grandfather’s legacy and said that former PM Jawaharlal Nehru is known for his work and not just through his name.

“Nehru Ji ki pehchaan unke karam hai, unka naam nahi (Nehru Ji is known for the work he did and not just his name),” Rahul Gandhi told reporters at the airport on his way to Ladakh for his two-day visit, starting today.

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) has officially been renamed as the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society with effect from August 14.

Nehru Museum Renaming Row

Gandhi’s comment came after the BJP and Congress engaged in a bitter battle of words, with the opposition party accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “distorting and destroying” the Nehruvian legacy and the ruling party dismissing the criticism as a “lament of courtiers”.

The Congress said despite the “relentless assault”, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy will live on for the world to see and he will continue to inspire the generations to come. History is created, it is never changed or converted, the opposition party asserted.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh 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.”

“Mr 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,” Ramesh said.

“He (Modi) has erased N and put P instead. That P is really for pettiness and peeve,” the Congress leader said.

The BJP hit back at the Congress for its criticism of the change of the name, saying the opposition party’s thought process revolves around the Nehru-Gandhi family alone.

Reacting to the Congress’ criticism, BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress is centred around promoting the Nehru-Gandhi family while Modi has ensured that all prime ministers are given a  respectful place. No other prime minister was given a space in the museum earlier, he added.

Congress leaders’ criticism is nothing but a “lament of courtiers”, he alleged.

(With PTI Inputs)