Oppn and Centre lock horns over upkeep of Red Fort by private party

NEW DELHI: The government’s decision to hand over Delhi’s historic Red Fort to a leading corporate group for its upkeep under the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme has kicked off a political storm.

While the Congress has accused the government of bartering away the “symbol of freedom”, the government responded by saying that the Congress too had engaged private actors in tourism. According to the terms of the MOU signed between Dalmia Bharat and Union ministry of tourism, the former will spend ₹5 cr annually for five years to make available certain basic amenities.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are now bartering away the symbol of freedom movement such as Red Fort to his corporate friends for maintenance,” Randeep Singh Surjewala, chief spokesperson of the Congress party, said on Saturday.

Responding to the allegations, KJ Alphons, minister of state for tourism, said, “Why did Manmohan Singh engage the Aga Khan Foundation, a foreign agency, for restoration of Humayun’s Tomb? Not only Singh praised their work, he had also said that such publicprivate partnership was needed to restore our heritage.”

Clarifying government’s stand, Alphons said the government is not handing over any heritage building to anybody as private companies will only do cleaning work, construct toilets, provide drinking water and parking among other things by spending their own money.

Adopt a Heritage scheme was launched by President Ram Nath Kovind on the World Tourism Day on September 27, 2017.

The private companies are expected to pay for the upkeep of the monument or site from their CSR (corporate social responsibility) budget. The site or monument will remain under the purview of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Indian law requires companies to spend 2% of their profit on CSR activities. It was in Operation Brasstacks in 1987, when the army moved tens of thousands of troops to the western border, along with armoured columns, artillery and rocket systems, in an overwhelming show of military.

Operation Brasstacks, the brainchild of then army chief, the flamboyant General Krishnaswami Sundarji, was intimidating and spectacular in equal measure.

It also asserted India’s The mock war was conducted in four phases. It all began with a secret tabletop exercise or a war-gaming scenario in Delhi Cantonment in 1986, followed by drills for large-scale mobilisation and deployment of forces at the Command level and, finally culminated in a fullscale combat exercise covering a wide range of military operations in Rajasthan.

“India had seen nothing like that in peace-time. Though it superiority over Pakistan in conventional warfare.

“Sundarji believed in mechanisation on a massive scale with multiple core offensives supported by armour, artillery and airpower,” said military affairs expert Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak (retd).

“This was part of a strategy to capture large swathes of territory as a means of deterrence, punishment and holding a strong negotiating position post conflict.” was purely a training exercise, United States and Pakistan viewed it as aggressive military posturing by the Indian military,” said former army vice chief, Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi (retd). He wrote and planned the first phase of the operation. Oberoi said then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was among the top leaders who were briefed on the first phase of the exercise.

The high-tempo military exercise simulated a fullfledged war between ‘Blueland’ and ‘Redland’, two opposing corps-level forces consisting of more than 75,000 soldiers each.

Backed by formidable air support and destructive firepower, the army carried out rapid armoured assaults and deep strikes into ‘Redland’ to destroy its war-fighting capabilities and capture territory.