Congress-Mukt Nehru Memorial: Kharge, Ramesh Dropped From NMML Panel, Amit Shah In

The Narendra Modi-led government has reconstituted the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) society. According to the order issued on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the president of the society with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as vice president. The order removed senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Karan Singh as members. It means the Nerhu's party does have any representation in the panel now.

The government inducted television journalist Rajat Sharma and adman Prasoon Joshi among others in the panel. Union ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Prakash Javadekar, V Muraleedharan and Prahlad Singh Patel, ICCR chairman Vinay Sahsrabudhhe, Prasar Bharti chairman A Surya Prakash, secretaries of Expenditure, Culture and Housing and Urban Affairs, are its members.

Besides, the chairman of the UGC, representative of Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial fund, Raghvendra Singh, director of NMML and journalist Sharma are also the new members.

According to the order, the other members include Anirban Ganguly (policy researcher and author), Sachchinanda Joshi (Member Secretary, IGNCA), academic Kapil Kapoor, Lokesh Chandra (Vedic and Buddhist scholar), Makarand Pranjpe (academic, writer), author Kishore Makwana, academic Kamlesh Joshipura, researcher Rizwan Kadri along with Sahasrabuddhe and Rai.

"The central government has reconstituted the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) Society under rule 3 of the memorandum of association and rules and regulations of NMML society with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the president and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as vice president of the society," the order said.

"The term of the members is for a period of five years or until further orders, whichever is earlier," the order further said.

Earlier, the Centre had appointed television journalist Arnab Goswami, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, BJP lawmaker Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and IGNCA chairman Ram Bahadur Rai as members of NMML Society, replacing four members who had opposed the move to build a museum for all PMs. It was just last month that former culture secretary Raghavendra Singh was appointed the director of the NMML for the next six months, replacing Shakti Sinha whose tenure ended on October 4.

These appointments gain significance as the government is planning a major revamp of the museum.

(With PTI Inputs)