Vajpayee aide leads race to head Nehru library

New Delhi, August 25

Shakti Sinha, who joined BJP in July 2014, is frontrunner for the post of Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML). 

A 1979-batch IAS officer, Sinha took voluntary retirement in September 2013 when he was serving as Finance Secretary, Delhi government. He was earlier Private Secretary to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was director of India Foundation from April-July 2016 and is at present part-time Director at South Asian Institute for Strategic Affairs. 

The NMML post has been lying vacant after UPA government-appointee Mahesh Rangarajan stepped down in September last. The library was set up in 1966 in Nehru's memory at sprawling Teen Murti House (next to Rashtrapati Bhavan), a place where the first PM stayed for 16 years till his death in 1964. NMML is an autonomous body under Culture Ministry. — TNS