BJP government in Rajasthan takes over Gandhi Vatika Museum’s management

The museum, built at a cost of ₹85 crore in Jaipur’s Central Park last year, is yet to be thrown open to the public.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Rajasthan has taken over the management of the Gandhi Vatika Museum constructed by the previous Congress regime, depicting Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and freedom struggle. The ruling BJP has decided to abolish the trust established for the museum by repealing the statute governing the body.

The museum, built at a cost of ₹85 crore in Jaipur’s Central Park last year, is yet to be thrown open to the public. The Opposition Congress had recently demanded that the museum be opened to apprise the people of the Gandhian values amid the attempts being made to erase the Mahatma from people’s memory.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel said here on Friday that the decision to repeal the Gandhi Vatika Trust Act, 2023, was taken in view of some “inconsistencies and flaws” in the law. “The Congress government granted unlimited financial powers to the trust’s vice-president. There was no justification for giving such powers to the nominated vice-president in the absence of a provision in the Act to remove him,” Mr. Patel said.

The Chief Minister was nominated as president of the trust under the Act. The vice-president had the authority to sell, mortgage or dispose of any property belonging to the trust, which the BJP government had found problematic.

Mr. Patel said the Gandhi Vatika would come under the control of the State government’s Department of Archaeology and Museums, just like all other museums operated and managed by it. The Act’s provision for creation of a corpus fund of ₹10 crore for operations of the trust with the interest earned on the amount will also cease to exit.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi had inaugurated the museum on September 23, 2023. Constructed in five phases in an area measuring 14,500 sq. metres adjacent to the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Governance & Social Sciences, it was considered a dream project of the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

While the museum was conceived as a platform for inspiring the youths with the virtual shows of various events during the Independence movement and enabling them to imbibe Gandhian values and philosophy, the BJP government did not evince any interest in opening it. The ostensible reason given was the administration’s engagements with the State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.