We The People: The Row Over 'Adopting' Monuments
A government plan to involve private companies to maintain India's best-known monuments has landed the centre at the centre of a huge controversy over news that Dalmia Bharat Group had "adopted" the iconic Red Fort. The opposition accused the government of trying to commercialise everything, wondered why the government could not spare Rs 5 crore every year on the monument that the company had agreed to spend over the next five years. With mounting criticism from opposition and historians, we debate that if in 70 years of our independence we have not managed to evoke a sense of value among people, then will we be able to protect the other heritage, which we so proudly keep listing on international registers? What will instil a sense of history and heritage among the local community?
