Shakti Sinha may become new director of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library

NEW DELHI: A year after the sudden exit of well-known historian Mahesh Rangarajan- a UPA appointee- from Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), the culture ministry is set to bring in a former bureaucrat and key aide to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the new director of the organisation. Highly placed sources confirmed to ET that Shakti Sinha- an AGMUT Cadre IAS officer of 1979 batch- is

set to be appointed for the NMML top job.

Sinha, served as a private secretary to Vajpayee during the NDA 1 regime. He took voluntary retirement from the service in 2013 while serving as Finance Secretary in the Delhi government.

NMML is considered an importance legacy of the Nehru Gandhi family and the organisation had Congress president Sonia Gandhi on board for several years until the government changes hands in 2014 and PM Modi became the head of the NMML Society by virtue of his office.

An autonomous organization under the Culture ministry, NMML is a leading repository of research on India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and the history of India's independence movement. Post the regime change in 2014, the NMML has been the scene of several 'cultural' changes that have sparked controversies including alleged plans aiming at dilution of Nehru's legacy at the eponymous institution.

More recently, NMML has been hosting exhibitions and seminars on the likes of BJP's ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, earlier. In September 2015, Mahesh Rangarajan who was appointed by the UPA as NMML Director just ahead of Lok Sabha elections resigned suddenly with the ruling dispensation raising 'ethical' and 'legal' questions on his appointment.

Culture minister Mahersh Sharma had then said that alleged that Rangaranjan's appointment that this was done when the election code of conduct was in effect and against express directions from the Election Commission that asked for putting the appointment process on hold. Sharma had claimed that Rangarajan's voluntarily relinquished the job and there was no ministerial pressure on him for the same.

Besides Shakti Sinha, others in the fray for the NMML top job- as shortlisted by a search cum selection committee- are 1983 batch IAS officer Vishnu Kumar, political scientist Prof Bidyut Chakrabarty and researcher Bhashyam Kasturi.