President Droupadi Murmu has approved the renaming of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in Delhi. It will now officially be called the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society, the government said in a gazette notification. In mid-June, during a special meeting of the NMML Society, it was resolved to change the institution’s name to Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society. The meeting was presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, vice president of the Society.
Sources told news agency Press Trust of India that some administrative processes were needed to finally put an official stamp on the new name. The name was formalised on India’s 77th Independence Day. The vice-chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library’s executive council had posted the update on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.
“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 post read.
The decision to rename the library, located in Teen Murti House – the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru – had evoked sharp reactions from the Congress, which called it a deliberate move to erase Nehru’s legacy.