NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: A member of the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library (PMML) has urged Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, to return the letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to Lady Mountbatten, Jayaprakash Narayan and others, which were allegedly withdrawn on Sonia Gandhi‘s orders in 2008, prompting BJP to ask what was in these letters that the Gandhi family “did not want the nation to know”.
PMML member and Ahmedabad-based historian Rizwan Kadri said the move to approach the LoP came after getting no response from Sonia. “Since no response was received from her, I have requested Rahul Gandhi to help in getting these material restored. I have also urged him to consider that these documents are part of the nation’s heritage and an important aspect of its history,” Kadri said. He added that the collection included letters between Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, as well as exchanges with Govind Ballabh Pant and Jayaprakash Narayan.
Kadri said in Sept this year, a formal request was made to Sonia Gandhi through e-mail regarding 51 cartons from eight different sections of Nehru collection at PMML, formerly Nehru Memorial Museum & Library.
Pouncing on the development, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said on Monday, “The question is whether Rahul Gandhi, as leader of opposition, will actually speak to Sonia Gandhi to return these letters to the nation. People want to know what Nehru ji had written to Edwina Mountbatten. When the decision was made in 2010 to digitise all these documents, why did Sonia Gandhi take these letters before the digitisation could happen? What was in these letters that the Gandhi family did not want the nation to know?”
He further said, “Two serious issues arise from this – first, the sense of entitlement by the ‘first family’, believing that it was their property to reclaim at will, and second, the content of these letters.”
In the e-mail to Sonia Gandhi, Kadri said he had requested that the letters be either returned to PMML or be granted permission to scan them, or provided with their scanned copies. “This will allow us to study them and facilitate research by various scholars,” he added.