New Delhi: The Centre has urged Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to return 51 cartons of Jawaharlal Nehru’s private papers that she took from Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) in 2008.
On Wednesday, the government clarified that no papers related to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru are missing from the PMML. This was in response to the Congress’s demand for an apology over the issue, as reported by India Today.
The Ministry of Culture rejected the opposition’s claims and explained that the controversy relates to private family correspondence, in a series of posts on X.
According to the government, in a letter dated April 29, 2008, M V Rajan, a representative of Sonia Gandhi, requested that she be allowed to take back all private family letters and notes of Nehru.
“Following this request, 51 cartons of Nehru’s private papers were handed over to Sonia Gandhi in 2008,” the government said.
The PMML has remained in continuous correspondence with Sonia Gandhi’s office for the return of these documents, including letters sent on January 28, 2025, and July 3, 2025, the Ministry of Culture said.
“As such, Nehru Papers are not ‘missing’ from PMML as their whereabouts are known,” the ministry stated.
It was further emphasised by the government that documents related to Nehru form part of India’s documentary heritage and cannot be treated as private property. It was also said their custody with PMML and access for citizens and scholars is essential for historical research.
“I respectfully ask Sonia Gandhi ji to explain to the country: What is being withheld? What is being hidden? The excuses being given by Smt Sonia Gandhi for not returning these papers are not tenable. The point is that why are important historical documents still outside the public archive? These are not private family papers,” Union culture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat posted on X.
All of this took place after the Congress sought an apology from the Centre and the BJP, following a reply in Parliament stating that no Nehru-related papers were missing from PMML.
BJP MP Sambit Patra asked in the Lok Sabha whether the PMML’s 2025 annual audit had found any Nehru-related papers missing. Shekhawat had responded and said the annual inspection had not found any missing documents linked to India’s first prime minister.
“In reality, 51 cartons of Jawaharlal Nehru papers were formally taken back by the family in 2008 from Prime Ministers Museum and Library (then NMML). Their location is known. Hence, they are ‘not missing,'” Shekhawat said.
Shekhawat further questioned why the papers were not returned to the PMML despite repeated reminders between January and July 2025. “The nation deserves clarity,” he added.
