The future of India and Gujarat lies in their libraries, Union Minister Amit Shah said in Mansa Sunday urging teachers to direct the young minds of the country towards reading.
“I will insist, whichever teachers of primary and higher secondary schools are listening, direct children and youths towards libraries. The future of Gujarat and the country lies in the libraries. If we make a student a subject expert, then Gujarat and the country will get a good citizen who can contribute,” Shah said while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a memorial of martyrs and a library at Samau village of Gandhinagar district.
Samau, which falls within the Mansa Assembly constituency that is part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency represented by Shah, assumes significance as 12 persons from the village were hanged by the Britishers during the Revolt of 1857. The memorial and the library have been built at a cost of Rs 2 crore in the memory of the martyrs.
Shah expressed happiness over the kind of books, including a Gujarati dictionary and grammar book, kept in the library that can seat around 100 persons.
Drawing parallels to a “lighthouse”, he said, “The library will function like a lighthouse for keeping alive the culture under which the martyrs made the supreme sacrifice. So, the modern library has been built at an apt place in front of the martyrs’ memorial (in Samau).”
He added that the library also offers digital services from where many books could be accessed online.
Elaborating on how they decided to choose Samau to house the library, Shah said he had got an anonymous postcard from Mansa informing about the 12 martyrs. After verifying the veracity of the letter’s content, it was decided to build an honourable memorial in their memory, the Union Minister said.
The foundation stone for the memorial and the library was laid last year.
Shah also recollected how the Mansa library contributed to his personal upbringing. Had the rich Mansa library not existed, he would have been doing a simple business like a Baniya, said Shah who is a Mansa native.
He also suggested the village residents appoint a committee of 11 persons who could maintain the memorial and the library. Such facilities can be provided by the government, but its maintenance has to be done by the locals, he said.
Late in the evening, Shah also offered prayers to Goddess Bahucharaji in native Mansa along with family.
The Union Minister is on a two-day visit to Gujarat. Earlier on Sunday, he inaugurated two public relation offices of Kaushik Jain and Jitu Patel, BJP MLAs from Dariapur and Naranpura constituencies respectively.
On Saturday, Shah spent time with Anganwadi children at an amusement park and watched the India-Pakistan cricket match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera.
