Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Sunday (Dec 28, 2025) urged former Congress President Sonia Gandhi to return first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s correspondence and documents to the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library, saying they belonged to the country and not to any individual.
The minister said, “The Prime Minister’s Museum and Library (PMML), which was earlier the Nehru Museum and Library (NMML), was established after the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A corporation was formed (to manage the museum) but it did not function properly. Subsequently, NMML was renamed as PMML (in 2023).”
He said that for more than 20 years, from 1970 to 1990, all the anecdotal documents related to Nehru, including letters written by Nehru to people, replies received and his personal notes and notes, were brought to the museum.
“Similar documents of all the Prime Ministers are preserved in the museum. There are about 2.5 million such documents. Out of this, 4 million are related to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru himself,” Shekhawat said.
While the papers of other prime ministers are permanent assets and heritage of the museum, it was written that Nehru’s papers were not given to the museum as a loan or gift but for safe keeping, Mr. Shekhawat said.
He said that on 29 April 2008, her deputy MV Rajan wrote a letter on Sonia Gandhi’s instructions demanding that she take back all private family letters and notes of Nehru.
It was subsequently decided that as these had been deposited in the museum for safe keeping, any letters the family wanted should be returned to them. About 57 cartons containing about 26,000 documents were taken from the museum.
“We have sought their return. Sonia Gandhi has said she will look into the matter. Because of course these ministerial documents cannot be the personal property of any individual. We have written two letters to her; again we are asking for their return,” Shekhawat said.
Digitization initiatives
On the culture ministry’s digitization initiatives, Mr. Shekhawat said, “About a year and a half ago, we started a digitization mission at the National Archives. It was the largest digitization activity in the world. We digitized millions of files and secured them.” Regarding the preservation of the manuscripts, he said, “We have undertaken the task of preserving this priceless heritage of the country, written many centuries ago. Some are on palm leaves, some on tree bark, some on tissue paper and some are handwritten on paper. Some even carry illustrations.”
The Minister said that millions of such manuscripts containing rich heritage of knowledge are kept in the Prime Minister’s Museum and it is important to digitize and preserve them.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi realized this need and initiated the ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’. We organized a national conference. We invited subject matter experts and other stakeholders and discussed it. We created a portal to store digitized content so that anyone can access it,” he said.
Mr. Shekhawat also said that the Aravalli Hills dispute was a classic example of the Congress making an issue out of a non-issue.
Mr. Shekhawat said, “The court’s statements were appropriated to score political points under the guise of saving Aravalli. But once the clarificatory notice was issued, everything was washed away.” The controversy erupted when the Supreme Court on November 20 accepted the definition proposed by the Center for Aravalli Hills and Ranges. According to the new definition, “the Aravalli Hills are any landform in the designated Aravalli Districts with an elevation of 100 meters or more above the local relief” and “the Aravalli Range is a set of two or more such hills within 500 meters of each other”.
“Policies must evolve”
On the Viksit Bharat-Garantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act (VB-G RAM G), which replaced the UPA-era rural employment scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Mr. Shekhawat said that as the nation changes, so must the policies.
The minister said that it should be recognized that India in 2005 and India today are not the same. “The country was transforming. When MGNREGA was launched in 2005, its requirements and social context were different,” he said.
“Over the past 11 years, the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken decisive action across sectors. Major decisions like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the repeal of Article 370 reflect this approach. There is hardly any issue where the government has not acted firmly,” he said.
He said that today nearly 300 million people have been lifted out of poverty due to Modi government’s policies and effective implementation of programmes.
“The programmes, which were becoming prone to corruption, needed reforms to make them more efficient, productive and performance-oriented,” he said, adding, “These changes reflect the government’s commitment to a changing and developing India, undertaken without fear and without fear of political repercussions, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Shekhawat said heritage conservation is at the heart of the government’s vision of ‘Viksit Bharat.’
On the culture ministry’s priorities for the next year, he said, “There is only one priority. We will work to increase the level of tourism, the number of tourists and improve the tourist experience. We will implement Prime Minister Modi’s vision of creating 50 world-class iconic destinations. The main responsibility that the Prime Minister has given us is to create the world’s largest museum on the iconic ‘South Block, Yuge, we will work on North Yuge’. Its construction.”
Published – 28 Dec 2025 20:57 IST
