Digitised archive reveals how Nehru, Kairon differed on funding Chandigarh capital project

Newly digitised Nehru archives, launched by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF) on Wednesday, throw light on the twists and turns of pre and post-Independence India as recorded in his letters by the first Prime Minister and in the correspondence he received from influencers of those times.

Starting today, all documents and letters, currently part of the 100-volume “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru”, will be available at the click of a mouse.

Secretary, JNMF, Madhavan Palat, unveiling nehruarchives.in today, said 77,000 pages of Indian history from 1920s to 1960s were now freely available online. In the second phase of the project, rare letters Nehru received from leaders such as Rabindranath Tagore (on the controversial issue of Vande Mataram) and many others would be found and digitised, said Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh.

The digital archives contain 35,000 documents, including letters revealing disagreements between then Punjab Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon and Nehru on financing the Chandigarh Capital Project. In a July 31, 1961, letter, Kairon wrote to Nehru that the state government had undertaken the construction of Chandigarh only on his assurance that suitable finances would be granted by the Centre to meet part of the project cost.

“I am enclosing a copy of a note recorded by Chandu Lal Trivedi, then Governor of Punjab, after a meeting with you and the then Finance Minister. The state government has spent Rs 22.2 crore on the Chandigarh project up to the end of the Second Five Year Plan. The greater part of this expenditure will be recouped by sale of developed sites, rent from government housing. But the rest Rs 8.53 crore will yield us no return,” Kairon wrote to Nehru adding that the Punjab Government had no resources to incur unproductive expenditure amounting to Rs 3.53 crore till the end of the Second Plan.

The then CM added that the Centre had given Punjab a subsidy of Rs 1 crore for the Capital Project and requested that the entire unproductive expenditure may be met by it through additional subsidy of Rs 7.53 crore up to the end of the Second Plan.

In his August 1, 1961, response, the PM told Kairon that he was not in a position to press the Finance Ministry for grant of such subsidy for the Chandigarh project.

“I can’t find any assurance that we would be responsible in any way for the whole expenditure incurred; for productive or unproductive purposes…At the present moment when we are very hard hit by all kinds of pressures, this matter is still more beyond our reach,” Nehru wrote to Kairon.

That the then PM was deeply involved with Chandigarh was evident from other correspondence he had with Kairon. On November 4, 1960, Nehru flagged to the then Punjab CM a complaint by Corbusier regarding Cantonment being built on the other side of the lake in Chandigarh. “I do hope you will not overrule Corbusier. His opinion is of value,” Nehru told Kairon. On September 28, 1962, in another letter Nehru asked Kairon not to transfer BB Vohra, Secretary of the Capital Project, out of his department.

“Corbusier is much agitated at the prospect of Vohra being transferred by the Punjab Government…Since Corbusier had been connected with Chandigarh from inception, it will be unfortunate to go against his wishes in the matter,” Nehru told Kairon.

‘Will include pvt archives if offered’

Asked if JNMF would include Nehru letters in private hands including with former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, JNMF Secretary Madhavan Palat said these would be included “if offered.”