Disney is coming to Sabarmati
Imagine a statue of Nathuram Godse welcoming tourists to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat. What is being planned for Sabarmati by Narendra Modi is quite as bewildering as that. Having killed the soul of Jallianwala Bagh with the renovation of the historical site, Modi, with the Chief Minister of Gujarat, is all set to convert Gandhi’s Ashram into an Indian version of Disneyland.
A sum of Rs
1200 crore has been set aside for the project. Apart from modernised museums
and a modified amphitheatre, the Ashram will now have food courts and shopping
complexes besides a parking space for 200 cars. Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in a
prominent public place in Ahmedabad, sculpted by none less than Kanti Patel,
will be transferred to the new Sabarmati. That’s a clever strategy for reducing
the visibility of the statue!
The sparrows
and squirrels that now share space with human beings will vanish with their
habitat-trees.
Human beings
were already dispossessed of their lands for the construction of the Sabarmati
Riverfront Park when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. The remaining few
human beings will be thrown out from the area now by the current new project. Gandhi
will move out by himself, I guess.
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| Hriday Kunj |
Gandhi’s
beloved residence, Hriday Kunj, will also vanish when Bimal Patel’s firm, HCP
Design, Planning and Management, will bring its bulldozers and earthmovers to
the 54-acre land. This is the same firm that is building the Central Vista in
Delhi, Modi’s pet project, a palace for himself – a project which felled 1838
trees from the world’s most polluted city.
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| Modi usurps Gandhi at Hriday Kunj |
Modi dared to
replace the Mahatma in Khadi India’s calendar in 2017. He dared to sit on the
same veranda of Hriday Kunj where Gandhi used to sit with his charka, yes the
same one Modi usurped. The irony becomes shocking when you realise that Modi is
an RSS man, the same organisation to which Naturam Godse belonged.
Recently Modi
bhakts evicted Nehru from posters of freedom fighters. Will Gandhi be now
evicted from his own Sabarmati? One thing is certain: Gandhi won’t like the
Disneyland that Bimal Patel will build in Sabarmati. Who cares, right? We are in
a new India, one which is Disneyfying history itself.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteShocking. I had not heard this news before reading this. I am aghast. That photo had also escaped my notice - and all I see in it is mockery. That Godse is now being 'worshipped' by RSS and other strong nationalists is beyond bizarre... and I see nothing on the diplomatic horizon to demonstrate that other world powers are paying any proper attention to what is going on, to have a word in his ear, "look here old man, this just isn't cricket..." ai-yoh... YAM xx
The current India frightens me because a vast majority of people including some of my own friends are supporters of all that Modi is doing. India is moving in a wrong direction altogether.
DeleteI didn't know about this and this is just horrifying. The Jallianwala Bagh pictures upset me deeply. I remember visiting the place a few years ago and just walking through that lane made me tear up because it made me feel real and imagine the things that happened there, the new pictures barely summon any emotions
ReplyDeletePerhaps the most grievous tragedy is that all these changes have ulterior motives whose impacts on the nation's psyche are going to be long-lasting.
DeleteThese days news persons do not cover these things widely and so much is happening so fast that most people do not know of the many steady changes being made...
ReplyDeleteOne of the tragedies in India now is that popular news media have become lapdogs. Others are driven underground almost.
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