Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) performs a ritual during the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new parliament building in New Delhi
Credit: -/AFP
India’s prime minister laid the foundation stone of a grandiose new parliamentary building on Thursday as his government sought to break free from the legacy of the British rule.
Narendra Modi pressed ahead with the ceremony at the new triangular-shaped parliament, a “post-independence” building which replaces the existing circular one built in colonial times.
The new parliament, which is costing £2 billion, is part of a wider revamp of India’s administrative capital that Mr Modi believes will underline India’s emerging status as an economic giant.
“When the British built these buildings, they never had an independent India on the horizon,” Hardeep Singh Puri, the minister of housing and urban affairs, told the Financial Times. ”The idea is to make this look like the capital of an independent country with landmark buildings.”
But conservationists say it is a poor substitute for the 93-year-old Parliament House, built by architects Sir Edward Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker when the British Empire moved its capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
India's new triangular-shaped parliament
Credit: Twitter/Hardeep Singh Puri
Architect AG Krishna Menon has filed a legal challenge to the project — writing this year that it amounted to "an assault on a universally valued heritage project"
Mr Modi also approved the construction of ten huge office blocks to house 51 central ministries currently spread across New Delhi, and a new prime ministerial residence. The work is part of a revamp known as “Modi’s dream” — a major "soft power" redevelopment of India’s two-mile ceremonial avenue.
Thursday’s ceremony was attended by more than 200 Indian dignitaries, despite India struggling to contain the world’s second-largest Covid-19 epidemic.
The new parliament forms part of 'Modi's dream', a a major 'soft power' redevelopment of India’s two-mile ceremonial avenue
Credit: -/AFP
After laying the foundation stone for the building, which is due for completion by India’s 75th Independence Day in August 2022, Mr Modi joined a group of Hindu priests to perform rituals for prosperity.
“If the old Parliament House gave direction to post-independent India, the new building would become a witness to the creation of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India),” Mr Modi said.
“If work is done to fulfil the needs of the country in the old Parliament House, then the aspirations of 21st Century India will be fulfilled in the new building.”
Despite Thursday’s ceremony, further construction of the building will now be put on hold pending an appeal by conservationists.
Architects and urban planners say the new buildings will provide unnecessary congestion in New Delhi — a megacity of some 30 million people which endures more air pollution than any other global capital. They also claim the old parliamentary building holds historical importance. The Indian Government has suggested that it could be converted into a “museum of democracy”.
Opposition politicians and civil society activists have also questioned the cost of the redevelopment, which they have described as a personal vanity project for Mr Modi. It comes as a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed 400 million Indians into further poverty, according to figures from the International Labour Organisation.
“Somebody should stop a mad man from forcibly changing the face of Delhi," said Yashwant Sinha, chairperson of the opposition United Democratic Alliance. "The plan has nothing to do with the needs of people or parliament. It only shows the hunger of one man to perpetuate himself in history.”
Mr Modi has employed Bimal Patel, a neo-brutalist architect from his home state of Gujarat, to design the parliamentary building and redevelop its surrounding area.
On its completion, the new building will be able to seat approximately 900 politicians, ahead of the expected expansion of the lower house of India’s parliament.
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