What is it that will make the government sit up and figure out that India is in the midst of a dangerous pandemic that has claimed over 2.6 lakh lives and threatens to claim many more? 

India today is one of the worst affected countries with a total of over 2.4 crore cases. Every day, there are over 4 lakh new cases detected despite tests not being conducted all over the country. The pandemic is spreading to rural India where the health infrastructure in many places is almost non-existent or unable to deal with such a calamity. Increasingly, the young are dying. The young who had a lifetime ahead. The world is worried.

If this cannot move a government to reorder its priorities in the face of a health emergency nothing will.

There has been widespread condemnation against the Narendra Modi government’s obsession to continue investing time and money in an expensive Central Vista Project which will include a new Parliament house, residences for the Prime Minister and the Vice-President and new multi-storeyed buildings that will become the offices of various ministries. 

The mega construction project proposed in 2019 will cost over Rs. 20,000 crores on completion by 2024. It will cover an area of 64,500 square meters.

The Project aims to redevelop a 3.2 km stretch between Rashtrapati Bhawan and India Gate that was designed and built in the 1930s by the British.

The Central Vista Project is a pet project of Modi who wants to usher it in as one of his signature moves to celebrate India’s 75th anniversary of independence as if India’s glory lies in a mere structure as grandiose as this. 

The new Parliament building which will be triangular in shape is being designed to seat 1,224 MPs. It will have both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and chambers for the MPs.

The present Parliament building with a circular perimeter with 144 columns was built by the British architect Edwin Lutyens for the British to govern India 93 years ago. 

It obviously has historic significance and will now be reduced to a museum. It has been the scene of various acrimonious debates on the Constitution and events like the war with China and Pakistan, the abolition of privy purses, the emergency, the liberation of Bangladesh, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and so on. 

In 1947, India used the present Parliament to usher in the independent nation’s first government. 

The British wanted to shift its Capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911. It roped in British architects Edwin Lutyens knowing well that he would bring in an inexplicable touch of classical European architecture. He rose to the occasion with the help of architect Herbert Baker who subtly dovetailed elements of Indian architecture to bring in latticed screens and canopies, a lot of which can be seen in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and many places in Rajasthan. There was an elaborate sensitive plan in place which took nearly 20 years to execute.

It is not that the Parliament building is in a state of disrepair or is going to collapse. It is very much usable and the new Parliament building could have waited. As they say, there is a time and place for everything. And, this is certainly the wrong time to pour much-needed money into a vanity project.

No one is against a new building or a new house for the PM and VP. No one is against new spanking offices for bureaucrats and their staff.  Financial allocations for this had no problem getting through. Government efficiency at its best.  

But, do we want it at this time when the country is in such a severe crisis? 

Hospital beds are full.  

So many have died as there is no oxygen.

Mortuaries are full and relatives are asked to immediately take bodies of their dear ones as there is no space to keep it. 

Medicines are in short supply. Or are available at ridiculous prices in the black market.

Scores of health workers have contracted the virus creating a manpower shortage. 

The health infrastructure of the country is crumbling. India does not even spend 5 percent of its GDP on health.

Graveyards are full. There is a waiting list for cremations. Unable to cremate their dead, bodies are now being just thrown into rivers. Getting wood for cremations has been a problem because of shortage and high prices.

The economy is in recession. Thousands of small units and businesses have shut and have little hope of a revival and the pandemic rages on. Millions have lost jobs. In April itself, around 34 lakh have lost their job.

Talk to anyone you meet on the street and he or she will have a story to narrate about how the pandemic has physically and emotionally affected them. 

There is anger. There is frustration that the government, both at the centre and the states, has failed them. Naturally, the Central Vista redevelopment looks like a vanity project to many who have suffered during the pandemic in one way or the other. It is not just the virus and the loss of loved ones. It is about plummeting salaries, job losses, unpaid EMIs and so on. Almost everyone has experienced economic losses.

The government announced with big fanfare how India will usher in the biggest vaccination programme in the world. Today, there is a serious vaccine shortage. The rollout was mismanaged as there was no forward planning. Vaccinations for those between 18 and 45 years were announced but few have got it as vaccination centres have pulled down their shutters as there is no vaccine.

Why did India send out over six million vaccines to 94 countries before catering to its own population that is seriously impacted? Could lives have been saved? We are now told by BJP spokespersons like Sambit Patra that it was a good strategy to do it as it was vaccine diplomacy to engage with the world.

A host of opposition leaders have now pleaded with Modi to make vaccinations free like many other countries of the world so that it reaches every Indian easily.  With vaccines now costing between Rs. 900 and 1,200, many millions are going to be left out as they will not be able to afford it for every member of the family.

In the letter, the opposition leaders asked the Prime Minister to call off the Central Vista Project and divert those funds to deal with the pandemic by getting vaccines, medicines, medical equipment, and oxygen.

They also asked the government to provide free food grains to the needy, payment of Rs. 6,000 a month to the unemployed, procure vaccines from all sources it could, and begin a mass vaccination campaign.

A project like this needs to be thought through for years and planned meticulously after a lot of discussion and debate and not rushed through. There has to be bi-partisan consultation.  The environment has to be not only preserved but enhanced in a city like Delhi which is one of the most polluted in the world. 

Heritage matters. History matters. Tradition matters.  Environmentalists, heritage experts, and architects have been left wondering why this great hurry to set up a monument has been given so much priority in the face of so much of public distress. 

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs could not hide its desperate hurry to push it through ever since it was proposed in 2019. Can such a grandiose project that is supposed to herald a new India, be executed like this. Or do we need to consider what is the best design, how it would be symbolic of the idea of India that our constitution-makers dreamt of? More importantly, could it have waited for a few years for the Indian economy to pick up to afford something as expensive?

Will we able to forget what the nation went through in terms of deaths and suffering when the project is inaugurated?

The Shiv Sena, which was till recently a very strong ally of the BJP-led NDA, was caustic when it said that while smaller countries in the world were out to help India tackle the pandemic, the Modi government was not willing to stop work on the expensive Central Vista project.

While global experts have cautioned about the emerging third wave, the BJP is busy cornering Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, the Sena said.

As many as 76 scholars also wrote to Modi saying that the extravagant project in the midst of a devastating pandemic was endangering workers and squandering scarce resources that could have been instead used to save lives. 

The signatories are intellectuals and scholars from both India and abroad which include public figures like celebrated historian Romila Thapar and author Orhan Pamuk who wanted the project to be halted for now.

As criticism against the project was all over the social media, the Central Public Works Department thought it best to suddenly prohibit still and video photography. This was probably because photos and videos of the construction were being transposed with relatives of patients on streets trying to shop for oxygen and flames that were rising from cremation grounds.

It is quite clear from the stand that the centre has taken in the courts that it has no intention of stopping the construction or spending on the Central Vista Project.

Do we need a new Parliament building or do we need to have a political culture and system that cares for equity and fairness, good governance, better healthcare, a better record of human rights and better delivery of services to those who elected the government?  

It is a question that is now being asked again and again by the man on the street.

(Ramesh Menon is an author and an award-winning journalist.  He is presently the editor of The Leaflet.)