New Delhi: The Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) has formally requested Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi to return the personal letters penned down by the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, which were sent to his mother and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi during the UPA regime in 2008, reports claimed.
The letter dated December 10 was sent by PMML member Rizwan Kadri, the India Today reported. Rahul Gandhi has been urged to retrieve the original letters from Sonia or provide photocopies or digital copies. A similar request was made to Sonia Gandhi in September.
The letters are considered to be of great historical importance. These were initially entrusted to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (now PMML) by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial in 1971. But in 2008, these were reportedly packed into 51 boxes and sent to Sonia Gandhi.
The collection features correspondence between Nehru and important personalities like Edwina Mountbatten, Albert Einstein, Jayaprakash Narayan, Padmaja Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali, Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Govind Ballabh Pant, among others.
Kadri mentioned that Nehru’s private papers were given to the PMML by his daughter and former PM Indira Gandhi “for safekeeping rather than an outright gift.” He also cited the minutes of a 2008 meeting which mentioned about the letters being taken away by Sonia Gandhi.
“We understand that these documents may hold personal significance for the ‘Nehru family.’ However, the PMML believes that making these historical materials… more widely accessible would greatly benefit scholars and researchers,” Kadri wrote, reported the India Today.
‘Want to know what Nehru wrote to Edwin Mountbatten’
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra commented on the issue, asking whether Rahul Gandhi would speak to Sonia and get those letters back?
“..Earlier, the letters written by Nehru ji to all leaders across the world were kept here. Later, we came to know that 51 cartons of letters that were written by Nehru ji to Edwina Mountbatten, Jayaprakash Narayan and several others were taken away from here by Sonia Gandhi in 2008 when she was the UPA Chairperson. Now, when AGM meeting of PMML (Prime Ministers’ Museum & Library) has taken place, a historian has written to Rahul Gandhi that why was that done…He has written to him, seeking help in getting those letters back…Will LoP Rahul Gandhi actually speak to Sonia Gandhi and get those letters back?” he told the ANI.
#WATCH | BJP MP Sambit Patra says, "…Earlier, the letters written by Nehru ji to all leadars across the world were kept here. Later, we came to know that 51 cartons of letters that were written by Nehru ji to Edwina Mountbatten, Jayaprakash Narayan and several others were taken… pic.twitter.com/5gbOvOYfjt
— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2024
“We want to know what did Nehru ji write to Edwin Mountbatten? What kind of communication took place between Nehru ji and Jayaprakash Narayan? When it was decided in 2010 that all documents will be digitised, why were 51 cartons of letters hastefully taken away by Sonia Gandhi? What did those letters have that the Gandhi family didn’t want the country to know?” he added.
