MODIFYING LUTYENS

Key watchdog committees issue hasty clearances to the controversial plans for a brand new Parliament building, sparking fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is using the protracted lockdown as cover to push through his grand plan to redevelop New Delhi’s Central Vista

- KAI FRIESE

Ever since Parliament was adjourned ‘sine die’ on March 23, much of the business of government has been conducted in the tranquility and opacity of ‘virtual meetings’ of bureaucrats and ministers. Anyone lucky enough to traverse New Delhi’s power corridor—the 3-km ‘Central Vista’ that runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan, past North and South Blocks and Parliament to India Gate—in ‘Corona lockdown’ will encounter a dystopian scene of deserted avenues that echo an eerie loop of warnings issuing from unseen tannoys. But just last month, a brace of committee meetings conducted in the ether of digital conferencing took a very concrete step towards altering the landscape of this iconic quarter of the capital.