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Don’t get me wrong, if you’re in Delhi or you’ve listened to hour long architectural explainers by the developers of CVP, the HCP group, you’d be in complete admiration of the work they’ve done.
But the problem isn’t the project but the decision to spend crores of taxpayer money on a city unworthy of what India wants to represent on the world stage.
The CVP was planned to create new organised avenues/office spaces for the Executive wing of the State. But why decide to build this utopia on a foundation of rot?
Delhi over its 80 years post independence history has some very encouraging points to stake claim to be the National Capital. It boasts of AQI levels of 500+ in stubble burning seasons, an average AQI of 150+, with a river carrying astronomical levels of faecal coliform, surrounded by majestic lofty garbage mountains towering at 60m (just a few shy of the Qutub Minar), road quality simulating the moon/mars , traffic violations and traffic enforcement synonymous with some 4th world African state, slums and refugees all around, & still if u manage to get in your bed, you never know when the next earthquake tremor might spring u out of it!!!
We have land, brains, and money—yet we insist on planting the country’s power core in a gas chamber wrapped in garbage hills? Couldn’t it be shifted to a fresh, clean NCR satellite city? Or how about creating a brand new UT and starting over? Too logical, maybe.
But does the average Delhiite/Bureaucrat/Indian care?
He has an air conditioner for the hot temperatures, air purifier, at home/car, can afford all the fancy N95 masks(don’t believe me, just check random SM uploads of North/South block officials in their cabin, spot the sleek air purifier in the corner), they can afford costly water purifiers/water softeners, can throw beer cans/ cigarette butt/trash out on the street knowing someone else will clean up & even if not, who cares what happens, my car/home is clean eh!?, who cares about the road quality unless the point few hundreds fall into fatalities or the media covers it…who cares if unlicensed underaged blokes drive around violating traffic signals , or in general ..with a corrupt /easily manipulated/intimidated traffic enforcers, at least they are able to get from point A to B in one piece..Right? And for the refugee, illegal immigrant thing, it isn’t some ancient humanistic value/belief system guiding it, it’s just politics & democracy that’s the prime mover
And if the affluent find it all unbearable, just spend the summer months vacationing in Europe? Or if the entire wonderland quality of life becomes unsustainable, just settle abroad & toss the Indian passport right at the bin outside the embassy. Who cares!?
Maybe it’s the Hindu teaching to “look within”,to focus on self improvement, that’s misfired?Maybe not.
But the reality remains: people have become numb to their surroundings, obsessed with inner peace, yoga,zumba and curated wellness while the outer world burns, chokes, and collapses.
In such a setup, do we truly think we’re ready to be the Tree of Knowledge?Vishwaguru?Vishwabandhu?
Or are we just building air-conditioned illusions inside a garbage heap?
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