NEW DELHI: The government has reconstituted the executive council of the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s former principal secretary, Nripendra Mishraearning another five-year term as president. The new members include former Union minister Smriti Irani, retired army general Syed Ata Hasnain, former NITI Aayog president Rajiv Kumar and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.
The term of office of nominated members of the society and council is five years or “until further orders, whichever occurs first.” The mandate of the previous executive council expired on Monday.
Irani’s inclusion is significant as it comes months after she disappeared from the spotlight following her loss in the Lok Sabha polls in Amethi.
The council is headed by Prime Minister Modi as chairman and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh as vice-chairman. Union ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Gajendra Shekhawat and Ashwini Vaishnav are members of the panel. The council has been expanded to 34 members instead of the previous council’s 29.
The list of new members also includes Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal, Sanskar Bharati’s Vasudev Kamath, academics Waman Kendre and Harmohinder Singh Bedi and educationist Chamu Krishna Shastry. Some of the other members added to the council include eminent archaeologist KK Mohammad and National Museum director general BR Mani.
Some of the previous members excluded from the new list include former minister V Muraleedharan, former Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, journalist Rajat Sharma, Indira Gandhi National Arts Center president Ram Bahadur Rai and Anirban Ganguly, director of Dr. Shyama Parasad Mookherjee Research Foundation. .
Secretaries of expenditure, culture, housing and urban affairs department, chairman of University Grants Commission, representative of Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund and PMML Director are ex-officio members.