The imposing nine-storey Anna Centenary Library (ACL), Chennai — South Asia’s largest and Asia’s second largest library — is in the eye of a raging storm. On November 2, 2011, the Jayalalitha-led AIADMK government, which was returned to power in the southern seaboard state of Tamil Nadu (pop.72 million) with a two-thirds majority in the state assembly election of May, announced an intent to convert the library into a super specialty paediatric hospital and shift the library to the proposed Integrated Knowledge Park, scheduled to be built on the less than salubrious Directorate of Public Instr-uction campus in Nungambakkam.
This unexpected declaration of intent evoked a strong public outcry and dissent among opposition parties and three public interest litigations (PIL) were promptly filed in the Madras high court, which issued an interim order on November 3 directing the state government to file a written statement in six weeks. However, when the matter came up for hearing again on December 16, the written statement had not been filed by the government.
The first bench of the Madras high court comprising Justices M.Y. Eqbal and T.S. Sivagnanam again passed an interim order staying the state’s proposal to shift ACL and directed the state to forbear from undertaking any construction work for this purpose. The judges have posted the petitions for hearing on January 19 after state advocate general A. Navaneetha-krishnan sought an adjournment for filing a counter affidavit. Moreover, when a PIL filed by advocate Prabhakaran seeking to declare ACL a National Public Library came up for hearing on December 23, the high court issued notice to the Centre in this regard, returnable in four weeks.
The vociferous public opposition to the state’s decision to convert the fully-functional ACL — the pride and joy of the port city — is hardly surprising. Inaugurated on September 15, 2010 by former chief minister Dr. M. Karunanidhi to coincide with the 102nd birth centenary of the late chief minister and founder of the DMK party Dr. C.N. Annadurai, and modeled on the famous National Library, Singapore, ACL is a momentous enterprise. The nine-storied, 348,480 sq. ft library was constructed at a cost of Rs.180 crore, and stands tall on an 8 acre campus within a stone’s throw of Chennai’s premier education and research institutions.
Designed to seat 1,250 persons, the air-conditioned library has a current stock of 500,000 volumes in several languages. Other facilities include a Braille and talking book section; own books reading section; two confer-ence halls; a cyber café on the ground floor; an exclusive children’s section with comfortable reading nooks. ACL also boasts 500 fully networked workstation personal computers offering leased-line broadband connectivity of 100 Mbps; a 50,000 sq. ft auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,280 and an 800-seats amphi-theatre.
In Chennai, it’s hardly a secret that the decision to relocate ACL is chief minister Jayalalitha’s riposte to arch rival DMK chief Karunanidhi, who built ACL on land earmarked by the AIADMK during its previous term (2001-2006) for housing a new secre-tariat. Typically, Chennai’s cautious academic community is reticent about directly condemning the Jayalalitha government. Yet, there’s complete unanimity that the newly returned AIADMK government’s decision to dismantle Chennai’s showpiece new public library is rooted in the vicious, no-holds-barred personalised rivalry, which is a peculiar feature of Tamil Nadu politics, the public interest be dammed.
Already in the seven months since she began her new term in office, Jayalalitha has reversed several decisions and projects of the DMK government, including moving the secretariat from the newly built Rs.1,200 crore Omandurar government estate to its old home in Fort St. George and putting on hold the samacheer kalvi (uniform system of education).
“Within a year ACL has begun attracting over 1,000 students, writers, educationists and children per day. It’s undoubtedly the country’s best library with an excellent Braille section for the visually impaired. The serene ambience, the quiet efficiency of the 100-strong staff and periodical updating of books are unique attributes in the Indian context,” says Prof. S. Janakarajan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies in Chennai.
But quite obviously in Tamil Nadu’s personal vendetta-driven politics, great institutions built at great cost in terms of public money, men and materials are mere pawns to be casually sacrificed in the anti-social games that the state’s politicians play.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)