Aca­d­e­mi­cians, ac­tivists, hu­man rights torch­bear­ers,  en­vi­ron­men­tal­ists, lawyers, politi­cians, re­li­gious preach­ers, stu­dents and good samar­i­tans from all over the coun­try came to­gether to voice out their op­po­si­tion to the Cen­tral Vista pro­ject for a new par­lia­ment and a new res­i­dence for In­di­a’s Prime Min­is­ter and Vice-Pres­i­dent. Con­vened by the Com­mit­tee Cen­tral Vista Vi­rodhi Bharat, hold­ing his­tory and her­itage to heart, the pro­ject was op­posed tooth and nail by the par­tic­i­pants. WSN re­ports.

THE NEW MA­HA­RASH­TRA SADAN on the quiet lanes of Delhi came alive at the round-table four-hour meet­ing barely me­tres away from the Ra­j­path where the Cen­tral Vista Pro­ject is be­ing planned and con­structed. Lead­ing lights of the so­cial­ist move­ment con­ducted a hec­tic brain­storm­ing ses­sion on strate­gies to op­pose the pro­ject, even though the Delhi High Court has given a go-ahead.

Among oth­ers Vidya Cha­van, Abu Azmi, Com. Ashok Dhawle, Prat­i­bha Shinde, Dr Lata P. Mad­hukar, Vishal Hi­wale, Ce­cilia Car­doza, Shramika Dalvi, Com. Shailen­dra Kam­ble, Dr. Vivek Ko­rde, Com. Raju Ko­rde, Dr Ashatai Mirge, Furkan Sheikh and Rizvi Shaikh par­tic­i­pated in the de­lib­er­a­tions.

Other lead­ers and ac­tivists who par­tic­i­pated in the meet in­cluded Gurmeet Singh, George Matthews, Mo­ham­mad Sid­diqui, Dr. Parvez Miyan, Prakash Gajb­hiye and Com. Maryam Dhawale.

In­au­gu­rat­ing the cam­paign of “Cen­tral Vista Vi­rodhi Bharat” for­mer MLC from Ma­ha­rash­tra -Vidya Cha­van said, “We want hos­pi­tals and not Cen­tral Vista – The Palace for the Prime Min­is­ter.”  “This is an act against peo­ple’s ba­sic rights and we strongly con­demn it,” she added.

“We need vac­cines and not a new palace for the Prime Min­is­ter, we need vac­cines , hos­pi­tals, med­ical and health care units in the coun­try and not newly built palaces for the nou­veau riche po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship. With the cur­rently es­ti­mated ex­pen­di­ture of 23,000 crores, there can be at least 182 best in class AI­IMS like hos­pi­tals across the coun­try.”

Com­rade Ashok Dhawle an­nounced the launch of an all-In­dia protest move­ment against the land grab in Delhi on 9 Au­gust 2021.

Ra­jya Sabha Mem­ber Par­lia­ment from Ma­ha­rash­tra of the NCP -Fauziya Khan said that the Cen­tral Vista is against our his­tor­i­cal legacy. She said we now need to see the cam­paign as “Vista Ver­sus Vac­cines”, “Kisan Ver­sus PM Ka Makaan” and Oxy­gen Ver­sus PM’s Palace”

“Vista Ver­sus Vac­cines”, “Kisan Ver­sus PM Ka Makaan” and Oxy­gen Ver­sus PM’s Palace”

Fauziya Khan, MP, Up­per House of In­dian Par­lia­ment

Ma­ha­rash­tra MLA Abu Azmi, pi­o­neer­ing this fo­rum de­clared that he will take this is­sue all over Ut­tar Pradesh dur­ing the elec­tions there.

Fire­brand leader from Gu­jarat and now a mem­ber of the Con­gress party, Hardik Pa­tel said, “He was not talk­ing from Mod­i’s Gu­jarat but Gand­hi’s Gu­jarat and he con­sid­ers his po­lit­i­cal and moral re­spon­si­bil­ity to hold the Modi gov­ern­ment ac­count­able for this gar­gan­tuan un­nec­es­sary pro­ject.”

Dr Sunilam from All In­dia Kisan Sang­harsh Samiti said that this is sab­o­tage to de­stroy our right of fil­ing PILs and go­ing to Court. We should ask all con­tes­tants in the up­com­ing elec­tion to men­tion in their man­i­festo to build many more AI­IMS in their re­spec­tive states and op­pose the Cen­tral Vista in New Delhi.

Ac­tivist Gurmeet SIngh from Delhi voiced his sup­port for the cam­paign and pointed out the huge harm that would be caused to his­tor­i­cal archives, mon­u­ments and books as the Na­tional Archives and the Na­tional Mu­seum would also be razed to the ground to cre­ate space for the ve­ran­dah of the nou­veau riche of In­dia. He wor­ried whether lit­er­a­ture and ma­te­r­ial in­im­i­cal to Hin­dutva would re­main stored or would be sim­ply de­stroyed or would van­ish as stolen.

On the oc­ca­sion of this event, So­hail Hashmi and Ananya were fe­lic­i­tated for their cru­cial con­tri­bu­tion to bring out the her­itage and legacy of In­dia Gate Precinct and the mon­u­ments around it.

Young and promis­ing lead­ers like Asif Iqubal Tanha, who was re­cently re­leased from jail af­ter be­ing im­pli­cated on friv­o­lous charges, Naim Khan, Anusha from DYF, Vishal Hi­wale, Amol Matele, Vinay Mishra, MLA (AAP), Sunil Chabake and Shramika Dalvi.

Re­gret­ting the si­lence of vested in­ter­ests, the par­tic­i­pants at the meet­ing ob­served,  “The ex­e­cu­tion of the Cen­tral Vista Pro­ject in Covid19 times has been crit­i­cized by the con­cerned souls of the so­ci­ety. The ex­ec­u­tive of the coun­try has not voiced out the con­cerns on by­pass­ing rules, the leg­isla­tive is be­ing au­to­cratic and not much both­ered for their self­ish in­ter­ests be­ing hand in glove in this not at all needed pro­ject, and even the Ju­di­ciary has acted in favour of the plans.”