HEAD IN THE SAND
The Modi government’s Rs 20,000 crore pet project to redevelop New Delhi’s ‘Central Vista’ has never been a model of transparency but the decision to raze the ornamental fringes of Rajpath in the midst of a new lockdown is a particularly perplexing—or characteristic—misstep. Despite the prim steel fencing erected to obscure the view of construction crews digging up the iconic national lawns, images of the ‘essential service’ work soon went viral. For a government already facing domestic and international opprobrium for its Covid failures, this was not a good look. As hashtags like #ModiMahal and #ModiAntoinette trended and opponents of the project brought a fresh petition to the courts, the government went on the offensive, asking the Delhi High Court to dismiss the most recent petition against the construction work with punitive ‘exemplary costs’.