MODIFYING LUTYENS

Ever since Parliament was adjourned ‘sine die’ on March 23, much of the business of government has been conducted in the tranquility and opacity of ‘virtual meetings’ of bureaucrats and ministers. Anyone lucky enough to traverse New Delhi’s power corridor—the 3-km ‘Central Vista’ that runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan, past North and South Blocks and Parliament to India Gate—in ‘Corona lockdown’ will encounter a dystopian scene of deserted avenues that echo an eerie loop of warnings issuing from unseen tannoys. But just last month, a brace of committee meetings conducted in the ether of digital conferencing took a very concrete step towards altering the landscape of this iconic quarter of the capital.

An expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the environment ministry, and the Central Vista Committee (CVC) chaired by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), by turn issued key approvals for work to begin on the construction of a new, triangular Parliament building, one of the defining features of the Modi government’s controversial project to redevelop the area surrounding the national mall. The stated objectives in commissioning this enormous scheme ranged from the need to accommodate the increasing tribe of MPs to improving infrastructure and synergies in government offices and reducing the maintenance and rental costs of buildings that currently house the ever burgeoning bureaucracy. Much before the lockdown, the project had provoked a storm of well-articulated criticism, pointing to the damage such a scheme would cause to the built heritage and environment of the city, and questioning the justification for the enormous costs of construction in expenditure, disruption and pollution. Such criticisms have only intensified since, and several political parties have now questioned the Centre’s priorities in committing a massive Rs 20,000 crore to a prestige project in the face of an international crisis with grave financial implications for India. Yet beyond the faceless committees and the irony of extra-parliamentary clearances for a new Parliament, there is clearly a singular, polarising personality driving this project, through peacetime and pandemic.

THE PM’S DREAMS

“IS THE CENTRAL VISTA PROJECT