Located at the Teen Murti complex in New Delhi, the new museum will shed light on the lives and contributions of all 14 prime ministers of India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the ‘Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya’ (prime ministers’ museum), which is a tribute to every prime minister in the country since Independence.
The museum tells the story of India after Independence through the lives and contributions of its prime ministers, the PMO had said earlier.
Modi also bought the first ticket of the museum before its inauguration, officials said. The PMO said the museum has been guided by Modi’s vision to honour the contribution of all the prime ministers of India towards nation building and is a tribute to every prime minister of the country since Independence, irrespective of their ideology or tenure in office.
It is aimed at sensitising and inspiring the younger generation about the leadership, vision and achievements of all our prime ministers. We take a look at this new offering and here’s what one can expect from it.
About the Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya
Located at the Teen Murti complex in New Delhi, the government said the museum has been developed to create awareness about all 14 prime ministers of the country with ample space for future leaders as well.
Also read: History of Indian prime ministers to come alive at new museum
A News18 report has said that the museum will include the erstwhile Nehru Museum, which has a technologically advanced display on the life and contributions of Jawaharlal Nehru. A number of gifts received by him from all over the world but not exhibited so far have also been put on display in the renovated Block I.
Controversy over the museum
When the museum was first announced in 2018 by the Narendra Modi government, the Congress alleged it was an attempt to dilute the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, whose memorial was established at the site of his long-time home Teen Murti Bhavan.
In fact, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had then written a letter to Narendra Modi, urging him not to “change the nature and character” of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in New Delhi and let it remain “undisturbed as it is”.
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Reacting to the news, the then NMML Director Shakti Sinha questioned the motive behind the letter. He had said, as per a PTI report, “The Teen Murti estate has shrunk in size, a planetarium unrelated to NMML (has been set up), some land was also given to Delhi Police. If none of this negatively affected Nehru’s legacy, how can a celebration of India’s democracy, in the establishment of which Nehru had an important role, be so negatively seen.
“In fact after the museum comes up we will have a lot more information on Nehru than we have now. I don’t understand why this should make people uncomfortable?” he said.
Another controversy over the museum erupted in November 2018 when an architect claimed that his designed had been copied for the new structure.
Architect Raj Rewal had claimed that the design of the Museum of the Prime Ministers of India (Museum of PMs) had been plagiarised from his design of the library block of the State University of Performing and Visual Arts in Rohtak.
According to the Indian Express, in a letter to Nehru Memorial Museum and Library director Shakti Sinha, Rewal’s company had said the Ashoka Chakra on the slanting roof of proposed design was a “rip-off” of his design.
However, Sikka Associates Architects, who are behind the design of the museum, called the allegation of plagiarism “baseless”.
With inputs from agencies
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