Grand Projects
The moves to outright wipe out or hugely tamper with or severely downgrade - in the name of reconstruction/redevelopment/beautification/..., of
earlier constructed iconic (heritage) structures is an integral part of the larger project of rewriting Indian past - including even the more recent
and reconstruct social memory.
In turn, a part of the mother project, already underway, to put in place a "New India" - with the founding Emperor as its mascot, displacing the "Old
India" that had come up at the largely successful - despite being somewhat marred by the dark patch epitomised by the blood-soaked gory Partition,
culmination of more than half a century long epic freedom struggle - informed with the spirit of pluralism, democracy and egalitarianism that
had come to get planted and then take root via the growing interface with the enlightened West, to put an end to the exploitative and oppressive
British colonial rule. - Sukla Sen
Forgetting freedom https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-three-ashrams-of-free-thought-that-are-at-risk-in-new-india/cid/1826069 G.N. Devy
The three ashrams of free thought that are at risk in New India
Excerpted by Sukla Sen In 2021, the Sabarmati Ashram is facing a serious threat of being turned into a ‘world-class tourist attraction’. An amount of Rs 1,200 crore has been pledged by the government to accomplish this. The architect entrusted with the controversial Central Vista has been commissioned to modernize the ashram campus. Gandhi was and will remain ‘world class’ because of his utter simplicity. The same simplicity marked the ashram when he created it.
The proposed VIP guest house and auditorium can, at best, make us forget Gandhi and his simplicity. *In all appearance, the Sabarmati Ashram makeover plans are aimed at inducing amnesia, not remembrance of Gandhi’s ideas and courage* [emphasis added]. Nothing else can be expected of a regime that is overly busy telling us through its information factories to forget all about our freedom struggle, the freedom of mind that Tagore celebrated and the freedom of spirit of Sri Aurobindo's vision.
Second assassination POLITICS AND PLAY | Defiling the Mahatma https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/second-assassination-defiling-the-mahatma/cid/1822792 Ramachandra Guha | Published 17.07.21
The Sabarmati Ashram as it stands today is a perfectly adequate memorial to Gandhi and what he stood for. The charming low buildings existing still from Gandhi’s time, the trees and the birds, the open ingress and lack of guards or of an entry fee, the absence of policemen in khaki carrying rifles or even batons, the view of the river — all these give the place a special, welcoming character absent in every other monument or museum in India today.
When a regime known for its aesthetic barbarism and its worship of monumentalism uses the word, ‘world-class’, in connection with the Sabarmati Ashram, it sends shivers down the spine
if a single architect gets awarded all prestigious State projects, paid for by the taxpayer, then there is indeed a problem. It is only in authoritarian States that particular architects have come to be associated with particular leaders and their cults of personality. That the same person can be seen as uniquely qualified to re-design an ancient temple city, a modern capital, and Gandhi’s ashram is a commentary on the nepotism and cronyism of the Modi regime. Indian architecture, and India itself, deserve better. The plan for ‘redevelopment’ was drafted by Modi’s inner circle with no inputs from architects knowledgeable about conservation and heritage, and without consulting Gandhians or scholars either. Even the Trustees of the Ashram were kept entirely in the dark about the plan and its contents.
Modi is not ‘redeveloping’ Sabarmati out of love or regard for the Mahatma, but to seek to burnish his own image and rewrite his past. A politician whose entire life’s work has been antithetical to Gandhi’s, and an architect whose prime qualification is proximity to that politician, have no right to mess around with the most hallowed of all the places associated with the Mahatma.
PM Modi’s Bullet Train dream derails after Japan stops funding https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/prime-minister-narendra-modis-bullet-train-dream-derails-after-japan-stops-funding Sept 2018
A Finance Ministry official to the media,that JICA has so far released only ₹125 crore, against its agreement to provide nearly ₹80,000 crore for the bullet train project, the cost of which was estimated at ₹ 1 lakh crore. JICA has demanded that the Modi government first settle the farmers’ grievances against the project, claimed an official of the Finance Ministry on the condition of anonymity.
JICA has reportedly taken the decision five days after Anandvardhan Yagnik, an advocate representing farmers in Gujarat High Court, shot off a letter to Japan’s Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu and Chief Representative of JICA India Office, Katsuo Matsumoto, demanding intervention from the agency.
Talking to National Herald over the phone from Ahmedabad, Yagnik said, “Guidelines laid down by JICA categorically say that if any person aggrieved by the land acquisition being carried out on finance from Japan Bank can file a petition formally invoking the guidelines of JICA, and they will depute a team and try to reconcile the situation.”