Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML) Society member and historian Rizwan Kadri has formally written to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking the return of personal letters written by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. According to Kadri, 51 boxes of letters were taken away from the Museum by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in 2008 during the UPA regime.
Kadri said the trove contained letters written by Nehru to Edwina Mountbatten – the wife of Lord Mountbatten, Jayaprakash Narayan, and Babu Jagjivan Ram among others. Nehru's correspondence with Padmaja Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali, Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Govind Ballabh Pant, were also in the boxes. These letters were donated to the Museum.
Kadri, calling it "an important aspect of history", said he wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi in September seeking the return of the letters. "I have written a letter to Sonia Gandhi and asked her to return the private letters of Nehru that were taken by her office, as she was the family's representative and donor," Kadri told ANI.
Kadri said he received no response from Sonia, following which he wrote a letter to Rahul. "I have urged him to consider that these documents are part of the nation's heritage and an important aspect of its history. Until we can view this material, we can't determine the reason for their withdrawal. There must have been some objectionable content for them to have been removed," Kadri alleged.
#WATCH | Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Rizwan Kadri, historian & author and one of the members of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society (formerly Nehru Memorial Museum and Library) says, "In September 2024, I wrote to Sonia Gandhi requesting that the 51 boxes that were withdrawn… pic.twitter.com/gLl4VM93lB
— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2024
He also questioned the motive for taking the papers back. "The collection once donated cannot be withdrawn but this is withdrawn. What was the motive behind withdrawing the letters exchanged between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten? This was donated by the original donor to the institution. Was there any objectionable thing in that? What was the motive for taking this collection back," he asked.
Kadri's statement triggered a row with the BJP latching on to it. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra questioned the contents of the letter, asking "What was in those letters that the Gandhi family didn't want the nation to know?".
Patra asked whether Rahul would speak to Sonia about the matter. He said the nation wanted to know what Nehru wrote to Edwina Mountbatten. "What intrigues me is what would have Nehru ji written to EDWINA MOUNTBATTEN that needed censoring and will LOP Rahul help getting back the letters between Nehru and Edwina!" the BJP MP added.
