Central Secretariat Library has 5,50,000 volumes but only 7 books on Narendra Modi

Two months after Narendra Modi assumed office, the Central Secretariat Library (CSL), the second-largest central government library in the country, has woken up to the fact that it has hardly any books on him or the RSS ideology.

It recently ordered 150 books on the new PM and the Book Selection Committee that will meet today and tomorrow will take a call on buying some more books on him.

CSL, one of the oldest libraries in the country, is housed in Shastri Bhawan in the capital. It is funded and administered by the ministry of culture. The library has a collection of over 5,50,000 volumes. And the basement has a newspaper morgue, a researchers' paradise.

"Initially we decided to dedicate an entire column in the library for the PM. Since he is against any larger-than-life portrayal, we plan to restrict the number of books," a ministry official said. Officials fear that putting up too many books in one go will not go down well with the PM.

At least 20 books on Modi will be introduced in the first lot. The library currently has only seven books on Modi, of which three are on the Gujarat riots. Narendra Modi — The Architect of Modern India by MV Kamath, Narendra Modi by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay and Gujarat 2002, Untold and Retold Stories of the Hindustan by John Dayal are among some of the books available in the library.

In comparison to the Gandhi-Nehru family and the Congress, the literature available on Modi and RSS is limited. The ministry official said the demand for books on Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Jayprakash Narayan grew after Modi started mentioning them during his election campaign. And it further increased after Modi became the prime minister. "Even bureaucrats want to read up on these leaders. Based on the feedback we got, the library has decided to have more literature on the two leaders," he said.

The books on Modi are currently placed in the biography section on the library's first floor. Placed in alphabetical order, books on Modi are on the racks after those on Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and other prominent Congress leaders. "G will come before M in the biography section. But we will re-accomodate some books in the general section on the ground floor," the official said. This will make the PM more visible.