In a move to defuse a potential confrontation, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has communicated her willingness to cooperate with the Prime Ministers' Museum & Library (PMML) regarding a significant collection of private papers belonging to India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. This development comes after the museum's persistent efforts to gain access to these historical documents.
The Core of the Dispute: 51 Cartons of History
The controversy centers on a bulk of Nehru's private papers, stored in 51 cartons, which were allegedly reclaimed by Sonia Gandhi from the institution in 2008. At that time, the organization was known as the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML). The PMML, now an autonomous body under the Union Culture Ministry, has formally written to Gandhi twice in 2025 seeking access to these papers for scholarly and historical research.
Sources indicate that Gandhi has finally responded, conveying that "her staff will look into it." This marks her first reply to the PMML's communications on this sensitive matter. Both the PMML authorities and Gandhi's office have declined to offer official comments on the ongoing issue.
PMML's Pursuit and Legal Scrutiny
The museum's pursuit of the papers gained formal momentum after the issue was raised at the PMML Society's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2024. Chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the meeting saw members decide to seek legal opinion on the matter of retrieving the papers. This was the first official communication from the museum noting that part of the Nehru collection had been taken by Gandhi.
The matter was discussed again at a subsequent AGM on June 23, 2025, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting, attended by Union Ministers including Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Ashwini Vaishnaw, saw a "strong consensus" to pursue the issue and obtain legal counsel. Key members like BJP leader Smriti Irani and censor board chief Prasoon Joshi were also present.
A prevailing view among the members was that papers related to the nation's first prime minister constitute a "national treasure" and should be returned to the museum as the rightful custodian to preserve his legacy. Many argued that once donated, such papers become the organization's permanent property and cannot be reclaimed.
Historical Donation and Current Claims
The archival collection was first donated to the institution by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971. The PMML's records show that the papers in question include historically invaluable correspondence between Nehru and prominent figures like Jayaprakash Narayan, Edwina Mountbatten, Albert Einstein, Aruna Asaf Ali, Vijaya Laxmi Pandit, and Jagjivan Ram.
During the AGM discussions, it was emphasized that the matter pertains to an action taken in 2008, during the Congress-led UPA government. The current administration seeks to "course correct the administrative lacunae of the pre-2014 era" by seeking definitive legal opinion on issues of ownership, custodianship, and copyright.
In a related development, the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, a non-profit trust chaired by Sonia Gandhi and located on the same Teen Murti campus as the PMML, recently launched a digital Nehru archive. This independent initiative offers over 35,000 documents from Nehru's selected works for free public download.
The resolution of this issue is now awaited, with Sonia Gandhi's office undertaking a review, potentially paving the way for these crucial historical documents to be made accessible for national heritage and academic study.
