New Delhi: The Union government has reconstituted the society and executive council of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) with several new faces, according to a notification issued by the Union Culture Ministry.
While former principal secretary to Prime Minister, Nripendra Mishra, got another five year term as the organisation’s chairperson, the new entrants include former Union minister Smriti Irani, former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, retired Army General Syed Ata Hasnain, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Sanskar Bharati’s Vasudev Kamath.
The council earlier had 29 members while now it has been expanded to 34 members.
Interestingly, other new members are Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the economic advisory council to the prime minister; educationist Chamu Krishna Shastry, who was a chief contributor in the formulation of the controversial National Education Policy (NEP); archaeologist K.K. Mohammad, a former regional director of the Archaeological Survey of India, who was part of the Babri Masjid excavation team in 1976, as well as archeologist B.R. Mani, who currently heads the National Museum.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the president of the NMML society and defence minister Rajnath Singh is the vice president.
Meanwhile, Raghvendra Tanwar, chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research, and Sachidanand Joshi, chairperson of the IGNCA and lyricist and admaker Prasoon Joshi are also part of the society.
Earlier known as the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library Society, the museum was renamed as the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society in June 2023 to “reflect the present activities which now also include a Sangrahalaya depicting the collective journey of democracy in Independent India and highlighting the contribution of each Prime Minister in nation-building”.
The renaming was criticised by the opposition Congress, which accused Modi of having a single point agenda of “denying”, “distorting”, “defaming” and “destroying” the Nehruvian legacy.
