In October 2019, when one saw some of the laughable interventions and additions proposed in the shortlisted proposals for the drastic redevelopment of New Delhi’s Central Vista, it was with fond hope – that this was some ill-advised bureaucrat’s hallucinogen-induced dream – that the actual leaders of a government with a record popular mandate would never dilute their public standing with such absurdity – that is, once they understood its ramifications.
A government, that for the first time, stressed on toilets for all, on national cleanliness, bank accounts for all (facilitating direct transfers and improving it from the famous 15 paise per rupee result as per a previous PM) and gas connections for all (saving our forests and utilising India’s wealth of gas) – thus, articulating matters that past governments had struggled to articulate or deliver – and striving to solve them using its eyes, ears and heart (at least in the first term), indeed gave at least one citizen initial hope.