 "Mamata, Manmohan share dais for Indian Museum celebration")
Banerjee had launched the TMC’s Lok Sabha campaign from a massive rally at the Brigade Ground on January 30 and said her party was the alternative to “dynastic and corrupt” Congress and “rioter” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India (Marxist). She positioned herself as a prime ministerial candidate and renewed the call for Federal Front. Today, however, she congratulated West Bengal Governor, M K Narayanan, who is the chairman of the museum’s Board of Trustees for spearheading the restoration of the museum, and thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for taking time off from his busy schedule to grace the event.
“Even Montek Singh Ahluwaliaji...whenever I went to Delhi for Planning Commission meeting, he used to say, Mamata ji, we have to do something for the Indian Museum,” Banerjee said. Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission was also present on the occasion.
She talked about the rich heritage of the museum, which happened to be the first national museum in the country, and highlighted the state government’s initiative in restoring museums in the districts. Prime Minister Singh said that the Indian Museum had one of the finest collections of art and antiquity in the country. He also pointed the evolving role of the museum and said, “While our museums have been successful in disseminating the rich past of our country it is also necessary to ask whether they should not attune their approaches and strategies so that they are more in keeping with the enhanced connotation of the term museum.” The museum has been undergoing renovation and restoration work for the past two years. “The endeavour was to give a complete makeover in the bi-centenary year. The objective was to make the Indian Museum a more exuberant place, a symbol of India’s new found confidence and above all a sanctum where India’s grand civilisation narrative is presented in the most attractive way,” Governor Narayanan said.