The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) Society, the body that manages the eponymous complex, has renamed itself the ‘Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society’, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) announced on Friday, June 16.
Although PIB’s release only mentions the ‘society’ and does not note if the museum itself will be renamed, The Hindu and Indian Express have reported that the NMML will now be called the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society.
Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, who is also the Society’s vice-president, welcomed its new name, as “in its new form, the institution exhibits the contributions of all prime ministers from Shri Jawaharlal Nehru to Shri Narendra Modi”, PIB’s press release read.
Singh was referring to the addition in April 2022 of a separate building dedicated to prime ministers after Jawaharlal Nehru next to the NMML.
“The Executive Council subsequently felt that the name of the institution should 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,” PIB’s press release also said.
The Nehru museum and the new building are together known as the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya – Hindi for ‘prime ministers’ museum’.
The new building that was inaugurated in April 2022. Photo: Anirudh S.K./The Wire.
In late 2019, the Union government removed three Congress leaders from the Society who had opposed the new building’s construction. The NMML was also involved in a controversy in 2015 when its then-director Mahesh Rangarajan quit over political pressures.
While the new building is just over a year old, the older building that houses the Nehru museum was built in 1930 as Flagstaff House to serve as the residence of British India’s commander-in-chief.
Nehru moved into this building shortly after becoming prime minister in 1947 and it was renamed ‘Teen Murti Bhavan’ (Hindi for ‘three statues house’). It was converted into a museum dedicated to his memory in 1964.