“Missing” Nehru Papers Row Returns, “Not Missing,” Says Government and Asks Sonia Gandhi to Return Them
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 18: The controversy over the alleged “missing papers” related to the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru from the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library in the national capital Delhi was reopened this week with the centre stating that no paper was “missing” prompting the Congress to demand an “apology” from the BJP.
The controversy had erupted after the Nehru Memorial Museum was renamed by the Narendra Modi government as Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library, a centrally-maintained national archive of past heads of state, and the BJP demanded that the former Congress president Sonia Gandhi who took back from the museum 51 cartons of “personal” documents of Nehru should be returned to the national archive.
The row broke on Monday after the BJP’s Sambit Patra asked a question in the Lok Sabha; the MP from Odisha’s Puri wrote to the Culture Ministry to ask if “certain documents related to India’s first Prime Minister have been found missing” from the museum and if these were “illegally removed.” The ministry’s response – “no documents related to India’s first Prime Minister have been found missing” – was flagged by the Congress as an inadvertent own goal by the ruling party.
“The truth was finally revealed…” the Congress’ Jairam Ramesh exulted on X Tuesday, attaching screenshots of the question and its answer, “Will there be an apology forthcoming?”
As the BJP senior leader and party’s national spokesman found himself in an embarrassing position, the minister in-charge, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, has now come out with a clarification to defend his party colleague. The papers, he declared, couldn’t be classified as ‘missing’ because the government knew where they are – they are with senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who withdrew the cartons on ground they constitute the Gandhi family’s private and personal papers.
M Shekhawat said M. V. Rajan, a representative of Ms Gandhi, had in a letter dated April 29, 2008, requested that she wished to take back all of the private family letters and notes of Nehru. “Accordingly, 51 cartons of Nehru Papers were sent to Smt. Sonia Gandhi in 2008,” the Ministry said in a post on X. It said PMML has been in continuous correspondence with the office of Ms Gandhi since then for return of the papers. This correspondence included the letters from PMML dated January 28, 2025, and July 3, 2025.
“Therefore, Nehru Papers are not ‘missing’ from PMML as their whereabouts are known. These documents, relating to the first Prime Minister of India, form part of the nation’s documentary heritage and not a private property. Their custody with PMML and access to citizens and scholars for research is vital,” the post said.
“Nehru’s papers are not ‘missing’… these papers were handed over officially in 2008, on request, with records and catalogues maintained by the PMML. What does require an answer is this – why have these papers not been returned despite multiple reminders…” Shekhawat asked on X.
“I respectfully ask Sonia Gandhiji to explain to the country. What is being withheld? What is being hidden? The excuses for not returning these papers are not tenable. The point is – why are important historical documents still outside a public archive?”
“These are not private family papers. They relate to the first Prime Minister of India and form part of our national historical record. Such papers belong in public archives, not behind closed doors,” the BJP leader declared, claiming, “History cannot be curated selectively.” Sonia Gandhi has not yet commented on being called out by Shekhawat.
There have been repeated claims and counterclaims over access to Nehru’s personal correspondence and the handling of archival material linked to him. In September, controversy erupted when Rizwan Kadri, a member of the Prime Ministers Museum and Library Society, wrote to Ms Gandhi seeking physical or digital access to private papers relating to Nehru that are believed to be in her possession.
The Congress has moved to dismiss the BJP’s Nehru papers demand, pointing instead to more critical governance issues, including the air pollution crisis in Delhi and the rupee-dollar link. “They have nothing left other than Nehru… even in their dreams, Nehru appears. Breathing is becoming difficult in Delhi, the rupee is weakening against the dollar, and the Indian economy is declining, yet they are not concerned about these issues,” Congress MP Imran Masood said.
Nehru’s legacy is an oft-used weapon in the BJP’s arsenal against the Congress, particularly in reference to the India-China border issue and the country’s foreign policy in general. More recent attack points include allegations Nehru forced the deletion of stanzas from India’s national song “Vande Mataram” allegedly to appease the Muslim community.
Those allegations have been rubbished by the Congress, for whom an exasperated Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said last week, “Whether 999 or 9,999, make a list (of complaints against Nehru) … let us speak about them and end it. Then we can talk about unemployment and price rise.”
Mr Shekhawat asked why the papers were out of the museum as “they were not personal.” “The truth placed before the Lok Sabha is clear and on record. The Nehru Papers were taken out in 2008, during the UPA period, when public institutions were often treated as family preserves. (Smt) Sonia Gandhi herself has acknowledged in writing that these papers are with her and promised to “co-operate” on the matter,” he wrote on X.
