In death, the good Dr Manmohan Singh has restored the grand old party's link with history and books and achieved what ended abruptly way back in 1971.
The Congress split of 1969 was significant on many counts. As a result of the split, the Indira Gandhi faction of the Congress lost control over 7 Jantar Mantar, where the party office had been housed since Independence. Indira set up a temporary party office at Windsor Place at the residence of Congress party loyalist MV Krishnappa, who had served as a junior minister in Nehru's cabinet. In 1971, the Congress office moved to 5 Rajendra Prasad Road, and from there to 24 Akbar Road in 1978. The Congress made several bids to wrest control of 7 Jantar Mantar Road, but without success.
Indira was greatly pained to lose her party's invaluable archives, but when she returned to power with a thumping majority in 1980, she refused to stake claim on 7 Jantar Mantar. "I have built the party from scratch, not once, but twice. The new office premises will rejuvenate the party rank and file for decades" she told Sanjay, when her politician son broached the subject of returning to 7 Jantar Mantar. Post Emergency, the bitter split of 1978 had left the Indira Congress with absolutely nothing. The then office secretary, Saddiq Ali, declined to hand over any official records, papers, or books to Indira. So, the party no longer had any files, old records, correspondence, office stationery, flags, or even typewriters!
Sonia Gandhi, herself an avid reader, author and editor of four books, was deeply pained each time it was pointed out to her that the 24, Akbar Road party headquarters did not have a decent library.
According to Jairam Ramesh, himself a writer and columnist of repute, the idea of creating Dr. Manmohan Singh Research Centre and Library was that of Sonia Gandhi. She reportedly told him and other party stalwarts about it on January 15, 2025, when the new party office, Indira Bhavan, was inaugurated at 9A, Kotla Marg, New Delhi. The Centre and Library was formally launched by Sonia, Rahul Gandhi, AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Mrs Gursharan Kaur on Septermber 26, 2025, to mark Dr Manmohan Singh's 93rd birth anniversary.
In January 2025, the party looked for Abdul Moin Zaidi and his wife Shahida Gufran Zaidi to put together the library's collection. Zaidi was the librarian at 7 Jantar Mantar and later at 5, Rajendra Prasad Road. He had painstakingly compiled The Encyclopedia of the Indian National Congress, which consists of the entire history of the party since 1885, including commentaries, speeches and minutes of the Congress Working Committee meetings. There are several books by AM Zaidi, including records of all AICC meetings since 1885, a treasure trove for any serious author and commentator on contemporary Indian history and politics. Ramesh himself has donated a whopping 1,000 books, included collected works of Mahatma Gandhi and selected works of Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, B R Ambedkar, Rajaji, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Jayprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Acharya Narendra Dev, Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, Dr Rajendra Prasad, NV Gadgil, and others.
True to Manmohan's world view and political ideology, the library books are not confined to life accounts of Congress leaders. It houses biographies of many political leaders as well as autobiographies of those who left the party or turned against the Nehru-Gandhi family.
The Manmohan Singh Research and Library has a whole section on Constitution, including a rare photo of the Constituent Assembly, Collected Works of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, books by and on Ambedkar, books on Constitution, debates in Constituent Assembly etc. Subjects dear to Manmohan Singh, i.e., economics, politics, culture, foreign policy, are in full strength. His speeches as prime minister share space with volumes on other prime ministers, namely, Nehru, Indira, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao.
An interesting feature of the research centre and library is prominence given to dozens of books authored by Shashi Tharoor, considered by many as a principal dissident leader currently. Books by Manish Tiwari, P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid, Mani Shankar Aiyar and K Natwar Singh are part of the collection. In 2013, when the UPA was in power, Sonia Gandhi, while addressing a meeting of party chief ministers in Shimla, said that democracy allows space for dissent and debate, and not just monologues. Many Congress insiders wonder if Sonia's appetite for constructive dissent is passed on to son Rahul Gandhi, too
Manmohan Singh, himself a giant of an intellectual, thinker, lecturer, however, remained cagey about penning his memoirs. This correspondent, encouraged by some well-wishers and family members, repeatedly urged him to write an autobiographical account, but the former prime minister declined, pointing that his stint as a loyal 'Congressman' from July 1991 till death would not allow him to cross any 'Laxman Rekha.' Some of the books giving him authorship in the public domain relate to his speeches, lectures and reports that he had prepared for the Commonwealth group.
