India’s President Droupadi Murmu is making the Rashtrapati Bhavan library, which contains 33,000 books including 2,000 rare works, available online for the public.
Murmu, India’s first tribal woman to assume the presidency, is also opening the Pranab Mukherjee Library to researchers, students and other people. In addition, statehood days will be held at the presidential estate, rather than in respective state bhavans in Delhi. The sports facilities could also be opened to children and professionals. Murmu recently met 1,500 people of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups and hugged the wives and mothers of deceased soldiers.
A plan to make the Rashtrapati Bhavan library, which is being digitised, open to researchers, even lay people; the celebration of statehood days, hitherto confined to respective state bhavans in the national capital, in the first citizen’s residence; and a possibility of throwing open the sports facilities of the presidential estate to children and professionals — these are just some of the ways in which President Droupadi Murmu, who turns 65 on Tuesday, is bringing Rashtrapati Bhavan closer to people, people familiar with the matter said.
To be sure, Murmu isn’t the first President to do this; both APJ Abdul Kalam and Pranab Mukherjee did their bit too. But the officials said that Murmu, India’s first tribal woman to assume the country’s highest office, is very clear that the Rashtrapati Bhavan (RB) resources will not remain confined to officials and residents of the presidential estate.
The plan to observe statehood days in RB, according to one of the officials cited above, “is aimed to bring the states closer the presidential estate. So far, statehood days would be celebrated only in the respective state bhavans.”
The RB library, which has 33,000 books, including 2,000 rare books, will be made available online for public. The oldest book in it, A Catalogue of the Original Works of William Hogarth, was published in 1795.
While the contents of the main library, situated close to the President’s office, can only be accessed online, “the Pranab Mukherjee Library, named after India’s 13th President, will be open to the public. Anyone can come and access resources online and offline. Arrangements are being made for researchers, students and other people,” added the official. This secondary library is also located in the presidential estate.