BJP asks Sonia Gandhi to hand over Nehru’s letters to PM museum

New Delhi: The BJP Monday asked former Congress president Sonia Gandhi to return the correspondences of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with a host of personalities to the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML), saying the historical documents belonged to the country and were not anyone’s personal property.

Speaking to reporters, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited reports of the PMML’s deliberations on the issue to note that Nehru’s correspondences with Edwina Mountbatten, wife of the last British Viceroy to India, and leaders Jayaprakash Narayan and Jagjivan Ram lay with the erstwhile Nehru Museum and Library Society, which returned them to Sonia Gandhi in 2008.

Patra also raised the issue earlier in the day in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour when union culture minister Gejendra Singh Shekhawat was replying to questions related to his ministry.

Shekhawat noted that Patra’s query, a supplementary, was unrelated to the main question raised in the House by BJP member Saumitra Khan. The minister said he has noted down Patra’s suggestions and appropriate action can be taken in the matter.

The Nehru museum was expanded to include memorials to all Prime Ministers and renamed the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library after the BJP came to power at the Centre. Taking a swipe at the Gandhi family, Patra said these were not personal property of anyone or any family but historical documents part of the “treasure” of India.

As Nehru was a member of the family, it suffers from a sense of entitlement over his letters, he alleged. He asked: “What were the contents of the letter that the first family felt should not be made public?”