Date:10/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/10/stories/2008021054680400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

10,000 books on freedom movement

Staff Reporter

— Photo: V. Sreenivas Murthy

BACK TO GANDHIAN WAYS: Union Minister M.V. Rajasekharan, the former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Krishna, the former Minister V.R. Krishna Iyer and Gandhi Memorial Trust president Ho. Srinivasaiah going around the library at Kasturba Bhavan in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: The Kasturba Bhavan was inaugurated on Saturday by Union Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajasekharan. Constructed at a cost of Rs. 30 lakh, it has been built by the Karnataka Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi with help from the State Government.

The building has a library comprising 10,000 books on Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom movement, a book stall and an auditorium.

Mr. Rajasekharan said people should return to the Gandhian way of life especially so that the youth did not forget these ideals held in high esteem by the world. “While 135 countries observed World Non Violence Day, only the country that the Mahatma died for has forgotten him,” he said.

The former Railway Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief said that everything that the nation had achieved had been because of freedom that the Mahatma achieved.

“We need organisations and individuals to inculcate Gandhian values in them,” he said.

The former Speaker Krishna in his speech said that the spirit of revolt did not exist among people. “Nobody wants to raise their voice against injustice, protest or start a revolution anymore,” he said.

H. Srinivasaiah, president of Gandhi Bhavan, and H.S. Doreswamy, freedom fighter, were present.