Sinha said he would continue making such donations to “break cultural immobility”, even if political opponents criticise him. Sinha said he would continue making such donations to “break cultural immobility”, even if political opponents criticise him.

Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha has donated Rs 25 lakh from his MPLAD fund to make a library in memory of Begusarai CRPF Inspector Pintu Kumar Singh, who was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir. Sinha said he would continue making such donations to “break cultural immobility”, even if political opponents criticise him.

He said the people of Singh’s village were demanding a statue, but he gave them the idea of a library and they accepted it, and the panchayat donated land for it.

He said that Singh’s three brothers are illiterate, but they liked the idea of a library, which would be monitored by a five-member committee on all purchases and expenses.

“Election time or not, I will continue to make such donations. My opponents may criticise me because they are not used to such use of MPLAD fund. My idea is to spend 50 per cent of my fund to break cultural immobility,” Sinha told The Indian Express.

He added that after the elections, he would donate from MPLAD fund for work on Sankardev, a 16th-century Assamese scholar, in Assam.

Sinha, who visited the CRPF inspector’s village of Dhyanchakki in Begusarai on March 5, said he was overcome with emotion at the condition of his family, which has three bighas of land. “I went to meet a martyr’s family. I committed funds for a library with MPLAD fund and decided to bear the education expenses of Singh’s daughter,” he said.

“I had donated Rs 5 lakh award money two years ago for a Dalit village in Begusarai when my mother was ailing. There was no election then,” the MP said, adding that he recently donated Rs 20 lakh to Pune’s Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute for work on poet Vidyapati.

“People of Bihar do not know Sankardev, people of Tamil Nadu do not know Vidyapati, Thiruvalluvar (Tamil poet) is not known to people of Maharashtra. My idea is to break cultural immobility by making donations for work on such personalities,” said Sinha, adding that he was upset with “political tourism” over the recent sacrifice of securitymen.

Singh’s brother Amresh, who is in the monitoring committee for the proposed library, said the family liked Sinha’s idea because there is no library in a 25-km radius. He said the library would have a room for self-study, one for discussion and infotainment, and a computer room.

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