Akbar has filed a defamation case against one of the 16 women journalists who accused him of sexually harassing them when they were his juniors in various media organisations.
NEW DELHI: MJ Akbar may have resigned as minister of state for external affairs in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and assault but it is not clear whether the government would ask him to give up his position as vice-chairman of the executive council of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), said people aware of the matter.
Members of the NMML society and the executive council, which takes important decisions pertaining to the museum associated with India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, said they have not yet demanded that Akbar be removed from the position.
Akbar, a journalist-turned-politician, is considered an authority on Nehru and has also written a book on him.
“It is premature to predict right now,” a member of NMML’s executive council told ET on condition of anonymity. “It is an important post and he has already resigned from the post of minister. It now depends on the government whether it wants him to continue here.”
The NMML has been at the centre of a political row, with the Congress strongly resisting the government’s efforts to change the character of the institution by bringing in figures other than Nehru into its fold.
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In 2015, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the head, both the executive council and Nehru Memorial Museum Library Society, considered a Congress legacy, were reconstituted to include new members. Lokesh Chandra, a former head of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, was appointed as chairman and Akbar was made the vice-chairman.
Akbar, who has filed a defamation case against one of the 16 women journalists who accused him of sexually harassing them when they were his juniors in various media organisations, resigned on Tuesday last week saying he had decided to move the court to “seek justice” in personal capacity.
He was monitoring the renovation work at NMML, including addition of galleries on Nehru’s life. He also headed the selection committee that shortlisted and chose Shakti Sinha as the director of the NMML after former director Mahesh Rangarajan, a UPA appointee, resigned.
The NMML executive council last year approved amendments to the NMML memorandum of association to facilitate building of a new museum that would honour all prime ministers.
