Memories and Archives of Rajiv Gandhi (MARG), a public gallery was inaugurated by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson on 20th August, 2019. The gallery constitutes of photo display of Rajiv’s life early life, family, professional career as pilot, entry into politics as a Member of Parliament, then as Prime Minister and Leader of opposition. Rajiv ji’s personal laptop and photographs clicked by him are also on display. MARG also houses an audio-visual room to watch the documentaries on the great leader. The Archives on Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s life and work at the Foundation is a rich collection including around 31,000 photographs, 2300 audio tapes, 500 video tapes, 1475 spool tapes, the full collection of speeches and other material on the life and work of Rajiv ji.
While preservation of the material through digitization is a key task of the Archives team, efforts have been made to enhance its accessibility for use or reference by scholars, researchers or anyone inquisitive about the ideals and persona of the beloved leader. The advancement in technology and digitization of the material facilitated this whole process. The dedicated team of the Foundation reached a milestone in 2018-19 by uploading the digitized speeches, audio and video tapes and photographs on the internet. The five volumes of Rajiv ji’s speeches, several thousand photographs and several hundred audio and video recordings of his speeches at various public events are available on the internet in a searchable and downloadable format, for use by scholars and others interested to use these for authoritative referencing.
