Moved by the plight of 63-year old daily wage labourer Syed Ishaq, whose library in a slum in Mysuru comprising 11,000 books, including the Bible, Gita and Quran was torched on April 9 by some miscreants, the Karnataka government on Tuesday announced donating 8,243 books. "The Public Library Department would provide 8,243 books to Syed Ishaq's library, which fell prey to the mischief of the miscreants," Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said in a statement.
The Minister added that he has instructed the official concerned to provide books to Syed Ishaq soon after getting the information that his library was torched by the miscreants. Kumar said a proposal has also been sent to the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation in Kolkata under the Centre's Ministry of Culture to support Syed Ishaq's library. A daily wager, Ishaq's love for books culminated in creating his own library in a slum for the poor people living in the vicinity where he lived. He laid emphasis on popularising Kannada.
This effort, however, did not go down well with some 'anti-Kannada forces' who set it on fire, Ishaq has alleged. "On many occasions, they (anti-Kannada people) had threatened me of dire consequences but I did not pay heed to them. Finally, they executed their plan," Ishaq said.
