Govt's appoinments to NMML betray motives other than academic ones

BJP has repeated the follies of previous govts in appointing hacks and pracharaks to its board

The government’s choice of replacements for the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) Society has been a disappointing one. That’s because the NMML Society is a veritable treasure trove of archival material that deserves to be treated in a professional manner. It has nearly 300,000 books and 200,000 photographs along with more than 1,200 collections of “papers” belonging to various Indian leaders ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to V D Savarkar. These should be available for dispassionate and serious academic examination instead of being mired in a political controversy. Sadly, that is what is likely to happen now, given that the government has chosen to replace noted academics by partisan journalists and members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (one of them is a former journalist who is also in charge of the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts). The members who were axed had been appointed in April 2015 and could have continued till April 26, 2020. According to the memorandum of association of the museum and library, non-ex-officio members of the society are to hold office for five years unless the authority that nominated them terminates their membership earlier, “which they will have power to do”. Evidently, the choices of the new candidates of the “society”, which is the body responsible for all important decisions pertaining to the running of the memorial, show poor respect for professionalism and historical studies.

Reportedly, the main bone of contention has been the Centre’s proposal to set up a museum for all past prime ministers of India on the Teen Murti premises. Many saw this as another attempt by the ruling party to “crowd out” the memory of India’s first prime minister and run down his legacy. Indeed, some academics who have been replaced were seen to have been against this proposal. One of them reportedly said that by bringing in all PMs inside the NMML, the memorial was opening itself to unwanted controversies. But admittedly, the NMML goes well beyond just Jawaharlal Nehru; it is the leading repository of documents, other archival material such as microfilms and books that relate not just to Nehru but also the freedom movement and post-Independence India. This is as it should be. As such, the idea of making a museum of all past prime ministers only extends this notion. There is no real reason why the focus should be exclusively on Nehru, special as he was in many ways, any more than why a memorial to him should need 30 acres in a prime land in the national capital. A museum of all former prime ministers will make good use of the spare land.

But at the same time, a centre devoted to modern Indian history needs professional historians and other academics who are similarly qualified; appointing hacks and RSS pracharaks betrays motives other than purely academic ones. Of course, in this and other areas where square pegs are being put in round holes so as to provide “jobs for the boys” and/or to carry out ideological purges, the Bharatiya Janata Party is only copying the Congress and the communist governments of the past, but, alas, that is no excuse.