CITY OF STALLED PROJECTS

Development takes a backseat in the zeal to rewrite the history of the erstwhile capital of the Mughal empire and rename its heritage monuments such as the Taj, with many of the city's development projects caught in purgatory

- Ashish Misra

It was meant to be a grand project, showcasing Mughal-era armour, attire, culture, and related memorabilia. But take the red sandstone topped Shilpgram Road to the eastern gate of the Taj Mahal, past the stone plaque bearing the legend 'Mughal Museum', and enter the iron gate adjacent to it, and you step into a dream that has long been abandoned.

The three-storey building on the 5.9-acre campus, 1,300 metres from the Taj's eastern gate, has been lying unfinished for almost six years now. More than two dozen expensive cassette air-conditioners lie rusting in the open, reinforcing the sense of dystopia. The complex was to have a handicrafts market, a seminar hall, and an art gallery. The hall for the handicrafts market is filled with rainwater; bushes have grown around it; the stones and tiles in the seminar hall-now serving as a shelter for stray dogs-have come off in several places.

Presiding over this abandoned landscape is a bright yellow banner fluttering at the gate, announcing the structure's new name-the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum. And rather than documenting any Mughal splendour, the renamed structure will display the history of the Braj Mandal, where Lord Krishna is believed to have been born and spent his childhood and adolescent years.

Ever since the BJP government took charge in the state, the demand to change the names of the roads, parks, monuments etc. in Agra has increased exponentially; some have already been renamed (see What's in a Rename?). Former BJP MLA Jagan Prasad Garg has written to the chief minister seeking the renaming of Agra to Agravan. On May 4, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, while inspecting the metro project work, directed the officials to rechristen the Jama Masjid station Mankameshwar, on the suggestion of G.S. Dharmesh, the BJP MLA from Agra Cantt.