PU to approach Manmohan’s family over books donation

Six years after former Prime Minister and Panjab University alumnus Dr Manmohan Singh had conveyed his wish to donate over 3,500 books from his personal library to his alma mater, the university plans to approach the family regarding this and hopes to accommodate the memorabilia of its one of the most distinguished alumni and a former teacher.

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Dr Manmohan Singh had passed away on December 26. The university in 2018 itself had identified a three-storey cylindrical area in Guru Tegh Bahadur Bhawan of the campus to house the books.

Confirming the development, PU Vice-Chancellor Renu Vig said, “Dr Manmohan Singh was one of the greatest alumni ever produced by the university and it shall be an honour for the institution to have his books and the memorabilia. We shall soon get in touch with the family, requesting for its consent and then proceed accordingly.”

The then VC, Arun Grover, had planned to make a ‘miniature’ of Nehru Museum and Library, New Delhi, (now converted into Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library) inside Guru Tegh Bahadur Bhawan.

The former Prime Minister had conveyed his wish via a letter to Grover on March 21, 2018, shortly before his visit to his department in PU for the first Dr SB Rangnekar Memorial Oration on April 11, 2018. “As you know, I have had a very long and close relationship with Panjab University. Therefore, while thinking of an institution to whom I could gift my books, your university was my first choice,” Dr Singh had written to Grover.

Shortly before Dr Singh sent the letter explaining his wish, Grover and Registrar Col GS Chadha (retd) had gone to the former’s residence in Delhi to see the vast collection of books.