It’s one thing to be blind to everything one does because we choose to tell ourselves that it doesn’t really matter as long as it doesn’t affect us. This is what the people in my country chose to tell themselves about their beloved Prime Minister and his ministers.
Narendra Modi’s decision to go ahead with Central Vista is completely unnecessary.
If you believe that this is about the incompetency the country has faced under the global pandemic of Covid-19, then this isn’t anything about that, because that’s a stated fact that isn’t up for an argument. What I write here is everything I wish to say directly to the face of my so-called Prime Minister.
You have done every possible thing to destroy the place I call my country, and somehow nobody has held you accountable because the first thing you did after coming into power is bought the very thing that would hold you accountable: the media. Somehow, whatever happened thereon was expected of you because in the ground reality I live in, I believe the legislature is only for the people on paper and not in ground reality which is why I did expect a lot of things.
The bending of rules, situations, and a lot more to keep your vote bank on the higher end, the buy-offs of people, media, and the narrative was expected. What I never thought of was how you’d walk into my home in the gravest of times, in the weakest of moments, and choose to demolish every inch of it.
The Central Vista Project
This is nothing other than an ego massage that the government chooses to give themselves because they believe that they’ve earned it and somehow, the ‘bhakts‘ have made them believe nothing less than that. It has nothing to do with the depleting state of the government buildings because it has been in the same place, the same state with the appropriate repairs and renovations ever since I have lived. You choosing to hide behind this baseless statement of dilapidated buildings just another scam, just like you have been all along.
This somehow feels like a personal violation because it feels like we didn’t elect a government to govern in the best interests of the people but rather we elected to be overruled and dictated into a world we do not even want.
I do not want my childhood memories to be tormented under your JCB machines. I do not want to be a show-off on how we look on the outside because amidst this pandemic, you and I both realized where the focus should’ve been all along and it’s definitely not about building ₹13,500 crores (approx.) worth of a project which is going to be of no good to the general public.
Being a Delhite all my life, you are not only walking over every little childhood memory I’ve ever had of our dearest India Gate, but you rather chose to snatch off the very identity of Delhi because being from a journalistic background, I know for a fact that every representative image of Delhi, started and ended from the shot of this beloved space. It is what we have always identified within our minds when we referred to Delhi.
Even if we put my personal love for this place aside, you chose to kill every ounce of the cultural heritage of this place when you thought that it’d be okay to bring down lamps and chains from the British era of our struggle because it not only signifies about what happened in the past but also about what the country overcame together under the unity of their survival. Something you do not really believe in because, for you, it has always been a spectator’s glass of religion, caste, class, and creed that blinded your vision which is why you thought this was the essential service we needed over everything. This is somehow more important than unloading and transporting the cargo required to help this pandemic for the betterment of the country in the global crisis, so I again see where your priorities really settle.
What Are We Losing?
You are choosing to relocate and rebuild the National Museum and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts because somehow it causes a hindrance to your dream-like fantasy of this project but somehow, as the current generation of this country, I’ve always had a problem with change and somehow, this isn’t even a change for the better, but rather for the worst.
4,642 trees are living and breathing under this Vista project and so far, as per the Forest Department, none of them has been uprooted but they also state how the government has proposed compensation to this environmental hazard with 30,547 trees to be transplanted outside the area without mentioning of a specific location as per Financial Express, and we all know how good the government is when it comes to keeping promises.
So somehow, this isn’t about how the entire project is not the essential service for the hour, but rather about how it is not needed at all, because you are building it over the aching hearts of Delhi and if this image isn’t breaking your heart, you do not deserve to sit on the chair that you think you’ll rule until the end of time.