New Parliament building: One wonders about the genesis of this grand idea.Certainly,it can not be anyone in touch with the ground realities.In India one is not just in touch with poverty but is engulfed by it.
Dr. H. C . Pande
Notwithstanding a thousand & one national development projects.unable to take-off due to insufficient funding,the government has planned a spending spree to the tune of Rs.10,000 Crores for building a new Parliament complex.With health,education and housing sectors struggling for financial assistance,this extravagance is hard to explain.
The proposed world-class facilities are not going to increase the efficacy of the Parliament one iota.The grand building will not prevent walk-outs or shouting bouts or irrelevant discussions or filibustering of sound proposals.It is the standard of debates that make a parliament meaningful and not marble and granite floors,or,paneled walls,or,smart air-conditioning & PA systems.It is the content,i.e.the intellect of the Hon’ble M.P.s and not the packaging that matters.And then,an impressive building already exists which has served the purpose so well all these years.
Rs.10,000 Crores as a corpus would amount to roughly an income of Rs.1000 Crores per year,enough to provide 1 lac students scholarships of Rs.1 lac per year for higher education or provide 10 lac students scholarships of Rs.10,000 per year for school education.Alternatively one could build 1000 middle schools or 100 inter colleges or 10 universities every year.And again 1000 primary health centers could be added every year or medical expenses,on an average,of 10 lac patients could be met annually.
One wonders about the genesis of this grand idea.Certainly,it can not be anyone in touch with the ground realities.In India one is not just in touch with poverty but is engulfed by it.Priority has to be for building people,not palaces.Sadly today the hefty component of any project is the building part.
So who is the culprit A politician?A bureaucrat?A builder?A contractor?May be all together.The reason is a no brainer.The easiest thing to do is to build a building.The building may not serve any purpose,but it is visible.For the politician only the visibility,the cosmetics,matter,so any massive structure is fine.For the bureaucrat the purpose hardly matters,as the Plan funds must be spent,and,preparing a purposeful project means mental as well as physical strain.For the builder the bigger the building,the larger his cut,and,for the contractor fancier the building,the higher his profits.Above all,with the grandiose project,the party in power is happy to have something to tom-tom about,and,and the opposition is equally happy to have something concrete,even literally,to throw at the treasury benches..Every one is happy toasting to….For he is a jolly good fellow….
These are times of the Byte,and,the age of IT.With the laptop becoming a complete office,and,with the libraries sitting on flash drives,the buildings are becoming increasingly superfluous .It is high time that we concentrate on building people and contain the bite of the building bug. (The views expressed by the author are personal)
(Prof. H C Pande is Vice Chancellor Emeritus , BITS, Mesra)
