What warranted censorship, says BJP as Centre seeks return of Nehru’s letters from Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday raised questions on the ‘censorship’ of some letters written by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to some leading world dignitaries. This comes after the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library (PMML) wrote to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to return the collection of historical letters belonging to Nehru.

These letters were removed from public access in 2008 on Sonia Gandhi’s request, who was the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The papers have since been stored privately.

Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP’s National Information & Technology Dept. Co-incharge West Bengal, took to social media on the issue.

He posted on X on Monday that Sonia Gandhi allegedly took away cartons of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru. “From what is now the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library (formerly the Nehru Museum and Library), it is reported that the then UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, allegedly took away 51 cartons of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to various personalities, including Edwina Mountbatten.”

He further wrote, “In a recent AGM of the PMML, a member, Shri Rizwan Kadri, wrote to the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, urging him to help retrieve these letters from his mother, Sonia Gandhi.”

Malviya raised questions about Sonia Gandhi’s move to keep the letters with her. “What I find particularly intriguing is: what might Nehru ji have written to Edwina Mountbatten that warranted such censorship? And will Rahul Gandhi act to recover these letters?”

Meanwhile, it is being reported that the collection was transferred to the PMML (formerly the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library) in 1971 by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund. It comprises 51 boxes containing personal correspondences of PM Nehru with some of the 20th century’s most prominent figures. Among them are letters to Albert Einstein, Jayaprakash Narayan, Edwina Mountbatten, Padmaja Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali, and Babu Jagjivan Ram.

“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. We would be grateful for your collaboration in exploring possible solutions,” the PMML’s letter reads.

The letter to Rahul Gandhi follows an earlier correspondence to Sonia Gandhi in September 2024. She was requested to return the documents for digitisation. “In September 2024, I wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi requesting that the 51 cartoons from approximately eight different sections, which were part of the Nehru collections at the Prime Ministers’ Museum (formerly the Nehru Memorial), be either returned to the institution, or we be granted permission to scan them, or provided with their scanned copies. This would allow us to study them and facilitate research by various scholars,” said Rizwan Kadri, historian and author.

Rizwan Kadri is among the 29 members of the PMML Society, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

IANS