Priests flanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he lay a founding stone for the triangular assembly which will hold 1,272 elected MPs by 2022, when India will mark 75 years of independence from British rule.
“The present parliament building needs rest,” the prime minister said at the 109-million-euro project site in New Delhi.
BREAKING | #PMModi lays foundation stone for a new #Parliament building in #Delhi.https://t.co/Lg01nCJrvw
— The Quint (@TheQuint) December 10, 2020
Sweeping changes planned
The 1927-built bicameral house will be replaced with a new 64,500-square-metre parliament.
Also, 10 new office blocks will be built for 51 government ministries along Delhi’s Central Vista, a 3.2-kilometre grassy stretch that regally sweeps down from the presidential palace to the India Gate War Memorial.
Engineers plan to construct a new home for India’s prime minister and also convert British-era offices near the 340-roomed red-stone palace into museums.
Delhi was established as the capital of the Indian empire by then colonial British rulers in 1911.
Architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker planned the city’s central administrative district, retaining a third of the area for open spaces.
“The new India requires a new face and the parliament building and Central Vista are considered as the hub of our democracy,” argued analyst P.K.D Nambiar in support of Modi’s ambitious project.
Annoyed judges
Last week, the Supreme Court slammed the brakes on all construction.
Three judges examining 10 separate appeals challenging the project did not specify a date for their final ruling.
The judges seemingly upset with a government statement on activities at the project site stipulated that even trees would not be touched till they gave the ordere.
But they permitted Thursday’s ground-breaking event.
Wasteful expenditure
Architect A.G.Krishna Menon, one of the several petitioners, alleged the opulent project was an excuse to rob the country of its heritage and valuable public space.
“Here, the government is usurping public property because the government thinks it is the public. It isn’t. The Central Vista will now become a secured government enclave,” Menon told NDTV.
India’s main opposition Congress party also criticized Modi’s government, arguing the project was wasteful expenditure.
“India has fallen on the World Hunger Index to 94. We are even below Pakistan and Bangladesh. We are the worst in Southeast Asia. Is this the priority now?” Congress spokesman Pawan Khera asked.
“Besides, what is the obsession with these large structures... whose ego is it trying to feed?” Khera added.
BJP is cocking a snook at people of India by laying foundation stone of #NewParliamentBuilding after bulldozing Parliamentary democracy, norms & ethos on regular basis https://t.co/8SCz5Ii555
— Jaiveer Shergill (@JaiveerShergill) December 10, 2020
Anuj Srivastava, another city architect who has petitioned the courts called for a “re-think.”
Farmers protest near Delhi
Thursday’s celebrations came as thousands of farmers protesting three new reform laws once again turned down the government’s overnight appeal to call off their agitation which erupted last month.
"History will also record that when the Annadata (Provider) was fighting for their rights for 16 days on the streets, you were building a palace for yourself in the name of Central Vista,” said Randeep Singh Surjewala, another Congress leader.
Pandemic worries
Other critics such as Biswajit Deb of a regional political party said the government’s priority should be the Covid 19 pandemic in India where 9.7 million people have so far contracted the contagious virus.
"Shouldn't health be our topmost priority now," Deb said.
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