NEW DELHI: The Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Committee has a grand plan to “integrate” the former Prime Ministers Samadhi with Rajghat.
The plan is to be finalized on April 10 at a meeting of the Committee chaired by the Prime Minister Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao.
The 20 member committee includes Mrs. Sonia Gandhi Mr. Arjun Singh Mr P. Chidambaram Ms Jayalalitha Mr. P.C. Alexander Ms Sunita Konh and Mr. Romi Chopra.
The proposal to integrate the Samadhis has however put the government in a fix over the propriety of linking Rajiv Gandhi with Mahatma Gandhi leader of a different era and stature.
As it is the Rajghat complex has over the years shrunk from 90 acres to 44 acres and is today smaller than the memorials of Lal Bahadur Shastri (70 acres) Jawahar Lal Nehru (60 acres) and Indira Gandhi (60 acres).
In 1985 30 acres of land was acquired from Rajghat to form part of Shaktisthal dedicated to Indira Ghandi Subsequently another 16 acres was carved out of Rajghat to build Kisan Ghat in memory of Charan Singh
It is in danger of losing land for the third time as the site on which Rajiv Gandhi was cremated though in Shaktisthal is close to the Rajghat border More importantly the approach road to the cremation site has been built as a detour through the Rajghat complex.
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation soon after it was established last year requested the government to develop 15 acres of the Raj Ghat land in keeping with the proposed memorial. The government passed on the foundations letter to the Rajghat Samadhi Samiti statutory body headed by the veteran Congress leader Mr. N.G. Ranga.
The secretary of the Samiti Mr. Ranbir Puri when contacted said the Samiti held a meeting in connection with this letter but could not decide whether 15 acres of the Rajghat land should be allowed to be used for the Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi.
Meanwhile the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Committee held a competition among leading architects for the design of the Samadhi. One of the entries to this competition is scheduled to be selected at tomorrow’s meeting of the Committee
Asked about the impact of the Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi on Rajghat the member-secretary of the Committee Mr. Wajahat Habibullah said it would be “minimal” as “not an inch” of the Rajghat complex would be acquired for the purpose. He clarified that the Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi no matter what shape it finally takes would cover only 10 acres of land and that too carved entirely out of Shaktisthal.
Therefore the existing approach road through the Rajghat complex according to Mr. Habibullah would under no circumstances is the “main” route to the Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi.
The Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi will not stick out like a sore thumb. Our concept is to merge the Samadhi with the existing environment and integrate it with the other memorials. We will remove all demarcations. So whether the land belongs to this Samadhi or that samadhi will become a hypothetical question.” Mr. Habibullah explained.
Referring to the pathways in Shaktisthal and Rajghat he revealed they would be madea single network so that a visitor would not have to come out of one complex to go to the other. “Each Samadhi will have a distinct identity” he said “but still be part of one whole.”
Another committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity remarked that the integration of the three Gandhi Samadhis would be apt because the three leaders had attained martyrdom.
Tomorrow’s meeting of the Committee is also likely to finalize a name for the Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi. One of the names in circulation is Sadbhavna Sthal.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 24, 1992
