In India Covid Crisis, Anger Over Centre’s ₹ 20,000 Crore Delhi Makeover


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In India Covid Crisis, Anger Over Centre’s ₹ 20,000 Crore Delhi Makeover

The existing parliament, which cost 8.3 million rupees and has a circular perimeter and 144 columns, was conceived of about 100 years ago.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rebuilding part of New Delhi, but the mammoth undertaking is drawing fire because it’s estimated to cost billions at a time when the nation is grappling with a devastating coronavirus outbreak and the economic fallouts of local shutdowns.

The planned changes will cement PM Modi’s legacy in one of the world’s oldest cities by reconstructing central Delhi, which houses the legislature and other historical buildings. The project covers an area as large as 50 football fields. India will get a new parliament building. The present 94-year-old structure, built during British colonial rule, will become a museum. Open spaces are poised to be repurposed for government offices. While many details haven’t been announced, media reports have said a new prime minister’s residence is likely to be built. All of it is to be readied for 2024, when PM Modi faces Lok Sabha elections for a third term.

The massive project - which the media have estimated could cost about 200 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) - has grown more controversial as India’s coronavirus cases have exploded. On social media, some questioned the need for spending on new government structures at a time when the nation is dealing with severe fallouts from the pandemic. One cartoon doing the rounds on Twitter depicted Indians without jobs, food and ambulances alongside a picture of PM Modi announcing a new parliament.

"The PM in his speeches since the pandemic broke, has repeatedly asked Indians to sacrifice - their time, job, lifestyle, their human and cultural tendencies to be gregarious," historian Ramchandra Guha said via text message. "Now the citizens must ask the PM to sacrifice something for the nation as well. His project to redesign central vista was always controversial. It is now absolutely untenable. He should drop it. He still can and should."

Spokespeople at the housing and urban affairs ministry and the prime minister’s office didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rebuilding part of New Delhi, but the mammoth undertaking is drawing fire because it’s estimated to cost billions at a time when the nation is grappling with a devastating coronavirus outbreak and the economic fallouts of local shutdowns.

The planned changes will cement PM Modi’s legacy in one of the world’s oldest cities by reconstructing central Delhi, which houses the legislature and other historical buildings. The project covers an area as large as 50 football fields. India will get a new parliament building. The present 94-year-old structure, built during British colonial rule, will become a museum. Open spaces are poised to be repurposed for government offices. While many details haven’t been announced, media reports have said a new prime minister’s residence is likely to be built. All of it is to be readied for 2024, when PM Modi faces Lok Sabha elections for a third term.

The massive project - which the media have estimated could cost about 200 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) - has grown more controversial as India’s coronavirus cases have exploded. On social media, some questioned the need for spending on new government structures at a time when the nation is dealing with severe fallouts from the pandemic. One cartoon doing the rounds on Twitter depicted Indians without jobs, food and ambulances alongside a picture of PM Modi announcing a new parliament.

"The PM in his speeches since the pandemic broke, has repeatedly asked Indians to sacrifice - their time, job, lifestyle, their human and cultural tendencies to be gregarious," historian Ramchandra Guha said via text message. "Now the citizens must ask the PM to sacrifice something for the nation as well. His project to redesign central vista was always controversial. It is now absolutely untenable. He should drop it. He still can and should."

Spokespeople at the housing and urban affairs ministry and the prime minister’s office didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
While the existing parliament was initially used by the nation’s British rulers, it has witnessed landmark events such as the passionate debates around the framing of India’s constitution and the historic speech of the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, announcing India’s independence from the British in 1947.

Now, despite the mayhem caused by the pandemic, PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party wants to leave its "stamp by constructing a new parliament building, redesigning the central vista which is sort of the heart of Indian powerdom," said Manish Tewari, a member of parliament who is affiliated with the opposition Congress Party.

Part of the Modi government’s plan is to redevelop the central vista - a 3-kilometer stretch beginning from the Rashtrapati Bhawan to India Gate - with 10 multi-story modern office complexes to provide more modern facilities for civil servants.
Current plans suggest that many open spaces around India Gate that are visited by thousands daily may no longer be accessible to the public. "We common mortals will have no reason to go there, as government offices replace the quiet spaces of art, history, performance, leisure," Narayani Gupta, a Delhi-based historian said.

PM Modi’s government is also finalizing the future of other buildings built after India’s independence, such as Udyog Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan, and Shastri Bhawan - which are decades old and house key ministries.

But the corner stone is the new parliament, which the government estimates will cost 9.7 billion rupees ($130 million). The aim is to complete it by 2022 in time to mark the 75th year of India’s Independence. The proposed building’s aesthetics will include references from the present parliament and the nation’s traditional arts and crafts, according to Indian architectural firm HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt., which is designing the Central Vista project. "The constitution hall and constitution gallery will symbolically and physically put the Indian People at the heart of our democracy," the firm said in an email. Subterranean tunnels will connect the parliament building with the chambers of members of parliament.
The existing parliament, which cost 8.3 million rupees and has a circular perimeter and 144 columns, was conceived of about 100 years ago. In 1911, the British colonial rulers announced they were shifting the capital from Kolkata (then Calcutta) to Delhi - the seat of power for many rulers before them.
British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker were roped in. Lutyens designed parts of the central vista in European classical architecture, with gigantic colonnades, cupolas and domes, while Baker brought in Indian architectural elements such as chattris (canopy-like structures), and jalis (latticed screens). After a wait of 20 years, in 1931, a new Delhi was finally unveiled. After independence India used the buildings for its government.

These days, India’s government is facing a variety of geopolitical and economic challenges that deserve greater attention, said Aparna Pande, director of the Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia. "It behooves Delhi to focus on building India’s military and economic capabilities, instead of seeking to rewrite history."

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