The Hindu : The politics of heritage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 24, 2003

Opinion

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The politics of heritage

THE TAMIL NADU Government's insensitive and shortsighted proposal to demolish the 90-year-old Queen Mary's College (QMC) and use its vast and beautiful campus to construct a new Secretariat would seem to have been blockaded for the moment. The obstruction has been erected by the Centre and lies in the form of a notification that imposes further regulations on activities on certain coastal stretches all over the country. The notification does not impose a general ban on demolishing buildings of archaeological and historical importance that lie along stretches of coastal land classified as CRZ-II. In other words, it provides no direct and comprehensive legal cover for the QMC (or for that matter any other building that falls in the same category). What it does, however, is take away the discretion of the State Government in this matter. All decisions relating to demolition and reconstruction will now rest with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). With respect to the QMC case, what this means is simple. The Tamil Nadu Government cannot decide to pull down the college and replace it with a new Secretariat — it will have to wait until the Union Environment Ministry gives the nod to do so.

The Environment Ministry's notification is dressed up as a broad and universal one, but it would be politically naive not to pay attention to the timing, the politics and the main purpose behind it. The notification has been issued at a time when the Madras High Court has reserved its judgment on the petitions challenging the QMC's demolition. It has come following the arrest of the DMK leader, M.K. Stalin, on a minor charge of trespassing into QMC — a decision that has only served to politicise the issue and lead the DMK (to which, of course, the Union Environment Minister, T.R. Baalu, belongs) to adopt a much harder line against the demolition of the college. Finally, while the ostensible purpose for the notification ranges from checking "destruction of mangroves" to curbing "depletion of ground water", it is apparent that the controversy over the QMC was the catalyst that provoked the Environment Ministry into issuing it. Wide consultations with the States should ideally have preceded the notification.

However, the politics behind it should not blind anyone to the substantially beneficial nature of the notification. Conservationists, who often appear to be fighting an uphill task to preserve the country's heritage, have reason to be pleased by it. For, what the notification essentially does is to extend the concept of environmental clearance to cover a wide category of buildings in developed or CRZ-II areas — coastal stretches where regulations were relatively lax in many respects. The introduction of a new sub-clause means that from now on MoEF clearance is required to demolish or reconstruct three general categories of buildings — heritage buildings, those with archaeological and historical importance and those under public use (such as schools, hospitals and places of worship). A significant alteration to a proviso in the unamended coastal regulations means that from now on any development with an investment of over Rs. 5 crores in a CRZ-II area will also require the approval of the Environment Ministry. As far as Chennai goes, this alteration has a significance that goes well beyond the fate of the QMC. Now, Tamil Nadu will also need Central approval for its proposal to "beautify" the coastal Marina stretch with high-rise buildings housing consulates and multinationals. It remains to be seen how the Tamil Nadu Government, which until recently seemed determined to build its Secretariat on the ruins of the QMC, will react to the Centre's notification. Given the amount of outrage evoked by this plan, the wisest course for the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, would be to look for another (and non-controversial) site to build her dream Secretariat. The issue, after all, was never about the perceived need for a new, roomy and modern Secretariat complex. It was only about where it is to be built, and the virtually disused MGR film city suggests itself.

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