Indira Gandhi wanted to make Teen Murti House the PM residence.
Indira Gandhi wanted Teen Murti Bhawan to be used permanently as the Prime Minister’s residence. Indira Gandhi lived in this building for about 16 years with her father, the country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. When she herself became the Prime Minister, she had a strong desire to make this building her residence. Interestingly, for this he had requested the opposition’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee to write a letter to this effect. She had promised that she would implement it once it gets cabinet approval.
However, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had refused to write a letter for this and had told him that as the Prime Minister, he himself was capable of taking such a decision. After this, Indira ji had given up the intention of making Teen Murti Bhawan her residence.
This place continued to operate as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society until the Narendra Modi government took over the building/complex to preserve the memories of other Prime Ministers of the country. Presently it is known as Prime Minister’s Museum and Library Society. Congress had strongly opposed this decision of the Modi government.
Congress alleged that Modi government has done this to belittle the contribution of Pandit Nehru. The government’s argument was that now this place is not dedicated only to Nehru, but to the contribution of every Prime Minister.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Photo: Getty Images
The opposition had raised the question
Criticizing this decision of the Modi government, then Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had given a statement that Nehru was the creator of independent India. Undermining his memory is an attack on constitutional values. This is not just a matter of the building, but a question of democratic history. Rahul Gandhi’s allegation was that the BJP government has a historical allergy towards Nehru and while in power, it is doing politics of ideological revenge. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had reminded that Nehru is connected to the soul of India. The change in his memorial shows political narrow-mindedness.
In the year 2022, Teen Murti Bhawan was made the Prime Minister Museum.
Interestingly, the building/premises in which Congress and the Gandhi family objected after decades to the addition of the memorials of Pandit Nehru and other Prime Ministers to the Teen Murti Bhavan, just two years after Nehru’s death, in 1966, his daughter, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, wanted to reserve that building for the residence of herself and future Prime Ministers. Ashok Tandon, who was the press advisor of Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his tenure as Prime Minister and even after that, has mentioned this incident in his book “Atal Memoirs” quoting Atal Bihari.
According to Ashok Tandon, when the Narendra Modi government proposed to convert the Teen Murti Bhavan complex in New Delhi into a Nehru Memorial Museum and the library into a national museum for all the Prime Ministers, the Congress had called it an attempt to undermine the legacy of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Tandon wrote, “In this debate, I remembered an interesting anecdote which Atal Bihari had shared in his Prime Minister’s Office. This anecdote was related to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s desire to shift to Teen Murti Bhawan.
Indira Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi spent 16 years in Teen Murti House
Indira Gandhi spent almost 16 years of her life in Teen Murti House, the residence of her father, the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and lived there until her death in May 1964. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966. One day in Parliament House, he told Atal Bihari that Teen Murti House would be ideal as a permanent residence for the Prime Minister.
Atal Bihari told that when he supported this proposal, Indira Gandhi requested him to write this idea to her in the form of a letter and promised that if he got the approval of the Cabinet, she would implement it. But Atal Bihari, understanding his intention, was not ready for this and reminded him that as the Prime Minister, he was capable of taking such a decision. Indira Gandhi smilingly accepted that she could not take this decision herself and thus gave up her aspiration of living in Teen Murti Bhawan.”
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