The Congress on Wednesday described attempts to erase Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy as “pettiness”, pointing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “insecurities” that prompted the decision of renaming the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said in a statement: “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.”

Ramesh added: “He has had a single-point agenda of denying, distorting, defaming and destroying Nehru and the Nehruvian legacy. He has erased N and put P instead. That P is really for pettiness and peeve. But he can never take away Nehru’s gigantic contributions to the freedom movement and his towering achievements in building the democratic, secular, scientific and liberal foundations of the Indian nation-state, all of which are now under assault by Modi and his drumbeaters. Despite the relentless assault, Nehru’s legacy will live on for the world to see and he will continue to inspire generations to come.”

Vice-chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library’s executive council, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, said: “Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) is now Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society w.e.f August 14, 2023 — in tune with the democratisation and diversification of the remit of the society.”

The attempt to equate all the Prime Ministers appears unreasonable as Nehru was not only one of the greatest freedom fighters but also remained in jail for 3,259 days, almost nine years. His contribution to nation-building cannot be compared with any other Prime Minister. A grand library in his name is justified even on the grounds of his intellectual prowess, scholarly pursuits and writing capabilities.

Asked about the renaming of the library, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said: “Modi, who bows to Mahatma Gandhi, yesterday only ran the bulldozer on Sewa Sangh in Varanasi, one of the institutions tied to Gandhi’s legacy. He is also trying to erase Nehru’s legacy. Their contribution is so huge that this government won’t succeed in destroying their history. History is made, not rewritten. There is nothing, not one work for which the nation will remember Modi. He doesn’t understand legacies are not built in sand and cement. He can make buildings and rename institutions but that’s not making history.”

Congress MP Manickam Tagore also slammed the government over the name change, saying “hate against Nehruji is a well-known element of RSS/BJS/BJP/Narendra Modi”.

Referring to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, he said: “PM Shastri ji created…VP Radhakrishnanji inaugurated. Narendra Modi closed it. Nehru ji lives in the hearts of INDIA.”

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