BJP revives row over Nehru's 51 cartons of letters

BJP national spokesperson CR Kesavan on Saturday urged Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and the Gandhi family to return 51 cartons of correspondence belonging to former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML), asserting that the documents are part of the country's documentary heritage and not anybody's private property.

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On the occasion of Nehru's birth anniversary, Kesavan questioned the Congress leadership over the custody of the documents and called on Rahul Gandhi to act on his "Daro Mat" slogan by ensuring their return.

In a post on X, Kesavan said the letters included correspondence between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten, along with communications with other prominent individuals. He added that failure to return the documents would strengthen suspicions surrounding their withdrawal from the institution.

"At least on Nehru's birth anniversary today, will Rahul Gandhi and the Congress first family have the courage to stop acting contrary to the national interest and return the 51 cartons containing Nehru's correspondence which rightfully belong to the country? If the Congress family fails to return these letters of Nehru, comprising correspondence from him to Edwina Mountbatten and other distinguished individuals, it will only strengthen the suspicion that the Congress first family is scared and indeed has something to hide," said Kesavan.

He further alleged that the documents, which were donated to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in 1971, were taken back by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi in May 2008, when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power. The institution was renamed the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library in 2023. Kesavan also noted that Sonia Gandhi's recent memoir does not mention the matter.

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"These letters are a part of the country's documentary heritage and not somebody's private property and need to be given back to the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML). Donated in 1971 to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (renamed PMML in 2023), these letters were abruptly taken back by Smt. Sonia Gandhi in May 2008, when the UPA was in power. The Digitisation of the archival documents purportedly began in late 2009-early 2010. Conspicuously, and yet predictably, there is no mention of this in Smt. Sonia Gandhi's recent memoir. Rahul Gandhi: "Daro Mat", it's high time you walk the talk and return these letters back to the country to whom it rightfully belongs," he said.

The long-standing political row over Nehru's letters has spanned multiple years, remaining a persistent source of contention between the BJP and the Congress.

In September 2024, Rizwan Kadri, a member of the PMML Society, wrote to Sonia Gandhi requesting the return of 51 cartons of documents from approximately eight different sections of the Nehru collection or permission to digitise them and obtain scanned copies for research purposes.

In 2025, Kadri also wrote to Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, seeking the return of the documents, which he described as an important part of the country's history.

"In September 2024, I wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi requesting that the 51 cartons 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," he said.

"These include important correspondence between Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, as well as letters exchanged with Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant, Jayaprakash Narayan, and others. These letters are a significant part of Indian history and have been proven through records to have been withdrawn from the museum in 2008 at Sonia Gandhi's direction," Rizwan Kadri added.

Subsequently, in December 2025, the Union Ministry of Culture clarified that the documents could not be described as "missing" since their whereabouts were known. Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat also stated that "no document related to the first PM for the country is missing from PMML".

In a post on X, the Ministry of Culture said the documents had been taken back in 2008 following a request made on behalf of Sonia Gandhi and that the PMML had been in continuous correspondence with her office for their return.

"Vide letter dated April 29, 2008, M V Rajan, representative of Smt. Sonia Gandhi requested that Smt. Gandhi wishes to take back all of the private family letters and notes of former PM Jawahar Lal Nehru. Accordingly, 51 cartons of Nehru Papers were sent to Smt. Sonia Gandhi in 2008. PMML has been in continuous correspondence with the office of Smt. Sonia Gandhi since then for the return of these papers, including the letters from PMML to Smt. Sonia Gandhi dated January 28, 2025 and July 3, 2025," the Ministry of Culture said.

"Therefore, the 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 private property. Their custody with PMML and access to citizens and scholars for research is vital," the Ministry added.

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, located in the Teen Murti complex in New Delhi, was the official residence of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The institution was established in his memory as an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Culture.

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