The 'Narendra Modi Gallery', located at the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library Society (PMML) or 'Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya' in New Delhi, is likely to open for the visitors on January 16-17, the museum Chairperson Nripendra Mishra said on Thursday. The gallery, dedicated to the Prime Minister, will feature the key highlights of the country's progress made in the last 10 years of Modi's rule.
"The work of the Modi Gallery is almost finished and we are hopeful that visitors can start coming from January 16-17," Mishra said. "At the 'Modi Gallery', it was decided to showcase how the PM's (Modi's) decisions changed the direction of the country's progress. Keeping this in mind, a small enclosure was formed on the foreign policies," he added.
The 'Modi Gallery' is likely to host key achievements boasted by the Modi government, including the Ram Temple, the Ujjawala scheme, the abrogation of Article 370, and the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), among other things.
The gallery is positioned next to the gallery dedicated to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the ground floor of the museum, which is open to the public on all days except Monday.
Row over renaming Nehru Memorial
To be clear, the PM's Museum was earlier known as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) before being officially renamed on August 14 last year.
The PM Museum was dedicated to the nation on April 14, 2022 and features the works of the various PMs of independent India. "The (Nehru) memorial museum and the newly constructed museum building together is known as the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, showcasing the legacies and achievements of all our Prime Ministers since 1947," the official website of the museum states.
Notably, the renaming of the museum had sparked a major political row between the Bharatiya Janata party-led National Democratic Alliance government and the Opposition parties. The Congress had termed the controversy a "petty act" and alleged it was a bid to destroy the legacy of India's first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, while the BJP had slammed the party's reaction as a classic example of "political indigestion".