Rajaji statue to replace Lutyens’ at Prez house that he designed | India News
New Delhi: In independent India, the legacy of New Delhi architect Edwin Lutyens came to symbolize a rarefied milieu inhabiting an enviable mix of power, lineage and influence. To critics, governments have come and gone but Lutyens’ privileged elites have endured.Since coming to office in 2014, Prime Minister Modi, muted in his disdain for what was sometimes derided as the ‘Lutyens’ Gang’ or ‘Lutyens’ Jamaat’, has been spotlighting his renaming of streets and powerful addresses and renaming Netaji Subhash Chand for Netaji Subhash Chand. Emperor, and emphasizing Hindi and other Indian languages and replacing British-era monikers with names rooted in Indian heritage and heritage. Now, Lutyens’ own statue will be removed from his signature building – Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ broadcast, Modi announced that a statue of C Rajagopalachari, a freedom fighter who became India’s first and only Governor General after independence before the post was abolished in the new republic in 1950, would replace Lutyens’ statue at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday.“His (Rajgopalachari’s) conduct, self-restraint, and independent thinking in public life inspire us even today. Unfortunately, even after independence, statues of British administrators were allowed to be placed in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, but the best children of the nation were denied the place,” he said. Prime Minister Modi praised Jayalalithaa The prime minister said it was a continuation of his push to rid the country of the slave mentality — a call he gave from the Red Fort — and prioritize India’s own heritage and traditions. The ‘Rajaji Utsav’ will be celebrated at Rashtrapati Bhavan and the statue will be inaugurated in its central courtyard, he said, praising Rajagopalachari – a close aide of Mahatma Gandhi and former chief minister of the erstwhile Madras state – as someone who saw power not as a position but as a service.Speaking to Lutyens, architect and town planner AK Jain said that the idea of a planned ‘New Delhi’ came to the haphazardly growing city only after the announcement of shifting the capital to Delhi in 1911.In her book ‘Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi’, historian Sapna Liddle writes that Lutyens rejected the Indian architectural style, Jain, who was also the author of Lutyens’ Delhi, insisted that the city’s credit could not go to one man, as he recalled the contribution of the Maharaja of Jaipur, who gave land and engines to Indians.Jain said that Mahatma Gandhi wanted the erstwhile Viceregal Lodge, now Rashtrapati Bhavan, to be converted into a hospital or an educational institution.In his remarks, Modi praised another prominent political figure in vote-bound Tamil Nadu – late AIADMK leader and chief minister J Jayalalithaa. She recalled her efforts for good governance, women empowerment and her personal equation with him since she became the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He said he had a special bond with women.“This is also because she made a lot of commendable efforts in the government for the welfare of mothers, sisters and daughters. She also took strong steps to maintain law and order in the state. The spirit of patriotism was deeply ingrained in her. She was also deeply proud of India’s cultural heritage,” he said of Jayalalithaa, when the Ramlya region had an early temple. The satraps avoided the plank of Hinduism.The Prime Minister recalled that he attended his two swearing-in ceremonies as Chief Minister in Gujarat in 2002 and 2012 and invited him to Chennai for Pongal lunch. His praise from two prominent Tamil politicians comes as election campaigning begins in the southern state.
