NAPM Press Release; and two articles, by A.G. Krishna Menon and Anuj Srivastava
Press Release
Withdraw Hasty Environment Clearance Granted to the Central Vista Project
National Alliance of People’s Movements, 20 May 2020
NAPM express its grave concern at the numerous recent moves of the Govt of India to dilute pro-people, pro-environment legislation and push forth massive projects that are detrimental to national interest. Instead of investing in robust public health infrastructure, amidst the worst pandemic, the nation-wide ‘lockdown’ is being used as an opportunity to ‘clear’ many controversial projects. It is alarming that the environment, forest and wildlife clearance process for as many as 191 large-scale mining, infrastructure and industrial projects is underway through ‘video-meetings’ of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) where many projects are considered in a time-span of just about ’10 minutes’!
The much-hyped Central Vista Project is one such ill-conceived proposal that has recently been cleared, despite a lot of objections from environmentalists, historians and concerned citizens. Based on the EAC’s recommendations dated 22nd April, MoEF & CC granted Conditional Environmental Clearance for construction of a new additional Parliament building, which is a part of the ambitious Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista Project. That the serious objections raised in the 1300 submissions to EAC have not been adequately considered is a sad reflection of the state of environmental governance at the highest levels!
The Central Vista Project envisages a ‘revamp’ of the entire 3-km long Rajpath, including South and North blocks of Central Secretariat and also the Parliament House of India. This revamp also entails that the North and South Block would be converted into museums and many critical offices like Krishi Bhavan, Nirman, Bhavan, Vignan Bhavan may have to be demolished. The proposal is to construct a new 900-seater Parliament building by July 2022 and a common Central Secretariat by March 2024.
It is not surprising that this wasteful expenditure will be projected as yet another patriotic prop before the 2024 elections! It is equally not surprising that a Gujarat-based architecture firm HCP Design, Planning and Management Private Limited has been given tender for the Project. Infact, in a recent letter addressed to the Prime Minister and the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister, around 60 retired bureaucrats have expressed serious concerns regarding the selection of the consultant architect and have said, “a hastily drafted and inappropriate tender was rushed through in record time to select an architectural firm in what was an extremely flawed process”. Akin to ‘PM Cares’, which is shrouded in secrecy, the Central Vista Project is yet another mammoth project which conceals more than it reveals !
There are multiple legal challenges to the Project in the Delhi High Court and the Apex Court on the grounds that the Project would lead to illegal change in land use and that it contravenes the Delhi Master Plan-2021 of ‘decentralizing the government offices in the national capital’. The legal tenability is also questioned on the plank that when the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) already invited objections to the proposal vide Notice dt. 19th Dec 2019 and the same was challenged in the SC, a fresh notice dated 20th March, 2020 could not have been issued by DDA, and that the same would tantamount to ‘interference in the administration of justice’. It is contended that if the project is implemented, the green cover in thee Central Vista of Lutyens’ Delhi would decrease from the existing 86% to 9% and of the 105 acres of the Central Vista, at least 90 acres is classified as public, semi-public district parks and neighbourhood play areas.
The Central Vista Project also violates provisions of the 2003 UNESCO Declaration concerning the ‘Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage’, to which India as a member state, is a signatory. Infact, what is not widely known is that an earlier proposal by the UPA Govt. in Jan 2014 to UNESCO to grant World Heritage Site status to “Delhi’s Imperial Capital Cities” was ‘withdrawn’ by the Modi Govt, without specifying any reason. It is not hard to understand why, since this regime did not want any questioning of the mindless tinkering of heritage sites of historical value by the world body.
The EAC and MoEF have a long history of rushing through decisions on such mammoth projects, even when objections are not objectively considered and litigation is pending, to create a situation of “fait accompli’’! Although many such ‘mega-infrastructure’ projects are hugely damaging the environment, enviro-legal safeguard mechanisms and authorities have been failing to defend the law of the land. It is indeed unfortunate that in a recent hearing, even the Supreme Court did not consider the matter “urgent enough” to be heard during lockdown, despite many serious objections and the fact that the Project would potentially and irreversibly change the whole landscape of the area.
NAPM demands that MoEF must immediately withdraw the questionable clearance granted to the Central Vista Project. If indeed ‘PMCARES’, the Govt of India must shelve this Project permanently and the huge corpus of Rs. 20,000 crores must instead be diverted to the Ministry of Health to strengthen public health infrastructure.
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Behind Modi’s Plans to Redevelop the Central Vista is a Covert Political Agenda
A.G. Krishna Menon
In early September, 2019, the Government of India launched a pre-emptive, surgical “attack” on the Central Vista in New Delhi by proposing to redevelop it into a “world class tourist centre”.
The “enemy” is the public – comprising citizens of India and others worldwide – who admire the design and setting of the Central Vista, and consider it an iconic symbol of India’s capital. Additionally, they believe that its genealogy and complex history compellingly infuse the site with the ‘idea of India’. Like the culture of the country, this site too had witnessed multiple histories, and its transformation from an imperial symbol to the seat of a vibrant democracy provided the cherished evidence of civilisational continuity.
The reason given to redevelop the site was to construct a new parliament building, accommodate a common central secretariat and upgrade facilities and amenities in the Central Vista. Prima facie, this appeared unnecessary and tendentious. Large urban redevelopment projects were being carried out all over the country in order to make them “world class”. At Central Vista, however, except for the need to address some long pending maintenance issues, no one thought of the area as degraded or in need of transformation, let alone the radical changes that the government was proposing.
In fact, the proposal was so shocking, that I use the words “attack” and “enemy” consciously, to convey what many actually felt about what they considered an assault on a universally valued heritage precinct. I also use the war metaphor, because, the Ministry of Urban Development, the project proponent, handled the proposal not as a public welfare project but as a state secret whose objectives had to be veiled from public scrutiny.
Normally, such projects are widely discussed, public opinion is elicited, even exhaustive studies are conducted to establish the relevant issues that should be addressed. Such transparency not only imbues the need to spend public money with credibility, but ensures a feeling of inclusivity and therefore cooperation from the public. On the contrary, this project was drafted in secret and now information is being dispensed on a need-to-know basis. And who was it they wanted to keep it secret from? The citizens of India, putative owners of this civic space.
Citizens reacted. Architects and urban planners among them got together (for the first time, according to many) and discussed their grievances and concerns. Artists and other agitated members of civil society joined in to form a broad coalition of citizens opposed to what was being increasingly recognised as an egregious project. In the absence of project details, the critics tried to figure out what the government intended, what they hoped to achieve, and analysed the implications in order to rationally formulate their reservations regarding the redevelopment.
This group of professionals and concerned citizens also tried to engage the government – and the appointed consultant – to discuss the issues they had identified, but to date, they have received no response from the powers that be. The initial secrecy has now become strategic silence, broken infrequently to make targeted power-point presentations to select interested interlocutors. Meanwhile, steady progress is being made on a range of necessary amendments to regulations and planning norms, making a mockery of the established protocols and processes of urban development. Nevertheless, the public has put on record a well-reasoned critique via articles in the media, holding public meetings, filing formal objections with various statutory authorities, and finally, also moving the courts. Although the matter is sub judice, the government continues with the project regardless.
Substantial information about the project is now available in the public domain. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has been persuaded to notify change of land use to construct many of the new buildings proposed, including the new parliament. The law mandates, for example, that for large development projects the entire project details must be revealed for consideration by approving statutory authorities, but the government is obtaining these approvals piecemeal, thus suppressing relevant facts and thereby vitiating the objectives of evaluating the overall impact of the project on residents, the environment and city infrastructure.
Critics have duly represented their objections, but these are opaquely dismissed, thus enabling the government to obtain the stamp of approval from the statutory authorities and claim that they have followed due process. The government appears to have perfected the art of governance by following the imperatives of ‘rule by law’, and avoiding the inconvenience of adhering to the necessities of the ‘rule of law’, to facilitate their work.
The critics are trying to make sense of what the government is doing. They are trying to come to terms with it. I have come to the conclusion that we are all misreading the objective of this redevelopment project. We have taken what the government is telling us about the project, its need and the rationale for meeting those needs, at face value. Accordingly, we have offered, in good faith, honest and sincere advice to help them and the project.
I recall that when the design was first unveiled to the public in late November, 2019, many individuals and professional groups decided to cooperate with the consultant and the government and offer to assist them. Even I felt that the project was redeemable. Professional bodies like the Institute of Urban Designers, India (IUDI), The Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA), and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), felt the same way, and coordinated their advice over several meetings, and drafted a comprehensive note, which they sent to both the consultant and the minister of urban development. There was no response, except the invitations to attend power-point presentations by the consultant. An honest desire for dialogue has now turned to skepticism and further, frustration. It is these circumstances that motivated me to try and understand the inexplicable behaviour of the government.
The focus of this piece is therefore not on the details of Central Vista redevelopment, but on the covert rationale that is driving it. There is obviously more riding on the project than meets the eye. What is the urgent compulsion for a democratically elected government to spend over Rs. 20,000 crores on this contentious project? Given mounting evidence of a sluggish economy, voices of concern had been raised even before the project was announced regarding the huge outlay of public money on for instance, bullet trains and massive statues. Now, with COVID-19 and the imperative to alleviate the hardships it is imposing on the “collarless” citizens of the country and on immediate health needs, this extravagance borders on wanton and perfidious. I have tried to join some random dots from what we know about the project, to see if a pattern can be discerned, and this is what the joined dots indicate.
What’s driving Modi’s plan
The bid document issued to select the consultant for the project, states the following objectives:
A new Master Plan is to be drawn up for the entire Central Vista area that represents the values and aspirations of a New India – Good Governance, Efficiency, Transparency, Accountability and Equity and is rooted in the Indian Culture and social milieu…These new iconic structures shall be a legacy for 150 to 200 years at the very least.
The document goes on to specify some project deadlines that merit serious consideration: it stated, for example, that the new parliament building should be completed by July 2022, which would be in time to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence, and that the entire redevelopment should be completed by March, 2024, which would be before the next general elections, and coincidentally, the 100th anniversary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Pegging project deadlines to meet significant historical or event milestones is not unusual, but it is revealing, because it always highlights the subliminal significance that a dry statement of intent does not.
Completing the redevelopment of Central Vista by 2024 is critical for Prime Minister Modi because it would, on the one hand, indelibly mark the success of his second term in office, and on the other, neatly coincide with the centenary of the founding of the BJP’s ideological mentors, and parent body, the RSS. The RSS has, among other deep agendas, the well-known objective of erasing all non-Hindu heritage in the country. The BJP is similarly inclined.
In 2013, for example, the then Government of India, applied to UNESCO to nominate Shahjahanabad and Colonial New Delhi to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. The application was in its final stages of submission and had the support of the Delhi government, but in the meantime, Narendra Modi was elected as prime minister and the BJP came to power. Modi promptly had the application withdrawn.
I was closely involved and led the team that drafted the dossier for UNESCO and lobbied for its nomination on behalf of the government; I know that there was no factor other than the prime minister’s bias to justify this volte face by the government. No Mughal or British complex could represent India or its culture on his watch. I am persuaded that the significance of the Central Vista as a symbol in stone of both the ‘idea of India’ and of colonial Delhi is as important to Modi as it is to the RSS; to ensure that it is redeveloped and completed by 2024, therefore, is a non-negotiable target for the government.
Bimal Patel, the consultant in charge of conceptualising and supervising its implementation is important for achieving this ideological goal. He has been Modi’s architect-of-choice for many projects that Modi undertaken in the past including the Vishwanath Dham redevelopment project at Varanasi, the Sabarmati River front development in Ahmedabad, and many other Gujarat government projects. In 2016, he wrote a laudatory opinion piece on Narendra Modi in the Indian Express. In the context of the new vision ushered in by Modi, he said New Delhi’s colonial heritage is an anomaly, and advocated the need to, “…untether ourselves from the past and more fully embrace the future”.
In professional circles it is well known that he enjoys the prime minister’s confidence and it came as no surprise to them when he was selected as the consultant to undertake the Central Vista project following a farcical and hastily organised “bidding” process. To blunt criticism, the principles of ‘rule by law’ were duly followed.
Critics may be upset at Patel’s proposal for Central Vista, but it is important to note that it complies with Narendra Modi’s and RSS’s political agenda.
Patel’s design for a ‘modern’ Central Vista that “represents the values and aspirations of New India” has subtly eviscerated the colonial heritage of the site without demolishing the iconic buildings. It empties out North and South Blocks by relocating the ministries they accommodated to the new buildings flanking the Central Vista, and repurposes them as museums dedicated to exhibit artefacts of ‘Indian civilisation’.
His new Parliament building will be topped with a modern shikhar, a few modest centimetres lower than India Gate, and the old building will be dedicated to presenting the progress of ‘Indian’ democracy. The Central Vista will now be dominated by a phalanx of multistoried government office buildings for accommodating the staff of the Indian government, but will retain the lawns, trees and water channels the colonial government built. This enormously popular, and democratic public space will be turned into a gated security area, but still be available to record selfies.
These proposals are Machiavellian in their brilliance, because they blunt criticism by not demolishing the British era buildings or its visual aspect, but give them an ‘Indian’ content and context. This design strategy, to paraphrase Carl von Clausewitz’s famous aphorism, is urban development as the continuation of politics by other means. Modi himself could not have envisaged a neater resolution to fulfill his, and the RSS’s, agenda.
Modi is determined to deliver a centenary gift to the RSS. It will add a feather in his hat which, in an election year (2024), could help him get re-elected. This is his moment, and he will exploit it, all criticisms and objections notwithstanding. He has no credible political opposition: he did not find it necessary to consult them to build a new parliament. His ministers obligingly genuflect when they are tasked to do a job: urban development minister Hardeep Puri, formerly a distinguished diplomat, for example, willingly ignored the protocols of democratic governance when he proclaimed that the redevelopment of Central Vista that was being implemented was Modiji’s “dream”. That is one of the random dots I have joined to reveal the hidden motivation behind this project.
The bureaucracy and its vaunted steel-frame has been reduced to being mere pen-pushers, eager to please. The judiciary too, is now ‘committed’. The Chief Justice of India recently declined to entertain a plea against the construction of the new parliament building, saying that in the larger context of COVID, it was not important. Nothing, it seems can stop Modi from fulfilling his, and the RSS’s ideological agenda. What is stated in the bid document is a smoke screen to veil the project’s covert agenda. This is why the government is deaf to its critics. The Central Vista project is about what Narendra Modi wants, not about what the Central Vista – or Delhi, or India – needs.
(The writer is convenor, INTACH Delhi Chapter.)
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Given below is an extract from an article by Anuj Srivastava, “Why the Redevelopment of Delhi’s Central Vista Is a Matter of Grave Concern”, on the same theme:
In a classic case of putting the cart before the horse, the architectural firm which won the bid for the tender for the Redevelopment of Central Vista and the Parliament is now desperately seeking approval for its design by approaching various institutions of education and professional bodies for presenting the scheme. These would then be passed off for Town Hall meetings or public consultations as stated by the concerned minister in his briefings. These meetings should have been ideally held much before the project was planned. These should have, of course, been preceded by detailed studies on the necessity and contours of the project and then the impact of the project on heritage, traffic and the environment. That these are sought to be held after the work begins to progress presents what could at best be called a fait accompli. The audience for the presentations held so far have been carefully vetted both by the selected architectural consultant and the government. It is also a fact that many of those who have attended these presentations have returned hugely dissatisfied with the answers that were given to the many questions asked during the course of the presentations. Any attempts to follow up were either brushed aside or ignored with the active connivance of the moderators of these presentations…
Connecting the dots: The plans for the project have been rapidly evolving and the architectural firm appointed has gone on record stating that nothing in the proposal was final and that it was evolving. It then appears illogical why the firm won the bid for a tender in the first place with 80% weightage given to the design and other technical parameters. But when one comes to know that the same architectural firm has been a part of grandiose schemes like the Sabarmati riverfront and the Gujarat secretariat and the highly controversial Kashi Vishwanath corridor, you begin to connect the dots. This is presumably why, at the pre-bid meeting held by the CPWD, the same firm was the only one which refused to sign a letter written by all architectural firms present to request the CPWD to have an open design competition for the project. The Gujarat model of building monumental architecture has finally come to Delhi. Any planned government work has to establish the necessity of the work as per laid down procedure. The genesis of this brings us to the need for the project in the first case. Concentrating 70,000 governmental offices and fossilising the buildings of North and South block and even the Parliament building belies any attempt to conduct a study or even an assessment of the requirements. Surely, incurring an expenditure estimated to be in the range of Rs 12,000-25000 crore requires due deliberation if nothing else. Statutory requirements like the heritage impact or the environmental impact assessment have not been conducted and it has been left to the consultant to process these clearances post haste. In fact, piecemeal environmental clearance was sought only for the Parliament building recently leading to protests by environmentalists. The new Parliament building rationale has been based on the delimitation due in 2026. But the decline of population will start in 2061, as borne out by the declining fertility rates and even the planned increase of seats is not commensurate with the projections which would be based on the census. Senior parliamentarians have gone on record to say that the present parliament can be adapted to the increase in members by reallocating the halls. In any case, parliaments all over the world adapt to the changing requirements using the principle of adaptive reuse of heritage structures and do not abandon their living heritage to make a new building.
The rationale for each of the other buildings, demolishing national heritage like the National Museum, IGNCA, National Archives et al is likewise skewed with nary a concern for the artefacts housed in these heritage structures.
That such a project could see the light of the day is in itself a great source of concern for all concerned citizens and professionals connected with the built environment. A citizens’ collective called LokPATH has been spearheading the fight to bring the common citizen’s voice to the powers that be to save the Central Vista. It is about time the government paid heed to the voices of the very citizens who voted it to power rather than riding roughshod over them and destroying priceless national heritage. This, in turn, would establish a paradigm for public consultations for our urban spaces in future. Further, this would serve as a model of good urban planning and conservation of heritage for not only the nation but the entire world.
(Anuj Srivastava is an architect from SPA Delhi and a veteran officer of the Corps of Engineers. He is a practising architect and Secretary of SPA Alumni Association and an Executive member of the Indian Institute of Architects, Northern Chapter.)
