The house that Jindal built

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, June 1, 2007 : With one hand, elder brother Sajjan Jindal, head of JSW Bengal Steel Ltd, unveiled a pathbreaking initiative in front of Chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on Thursday to compensate families from whom land is being bought for its West Midnapore steel plant, with both cash and shares.

On the other hand, younger brother Naveen Jindal, Congress MP from Kurukshetra, wants to demolish a 1921 heritage building he bought about two years ago in the heart of New Delhi, allegedly for Rs 160 crores, and build a spanking new house in its place.

So what’s wrong with the house the younger Jindal scion wants to first destroy, then rebuild? Not much, except it is a heritage building in the heart of New Delhi’s sacrosanct Lutyens Building Zone, and now at the centre of a huge conservation battle between India’s top heritage experts and the Congress MP.

Problem is, if Jindal, the man synonymous with the campaign to fly the national flag, is allowed to demolish the heritage building, he will be violating the rules and restrictions of the Lutyens Bungalow Zone (LBZ), a conservation area demarcated as early as 1981, that was also said to be very close to the heart of the Rajiv Gandhi family.

The LBZ, a 26-square km area in the heart of Delhi which gives the city a flavour of its imperial past, was designed by the British architect Edwin Lutyens. Successive Delhi governments have emphasized the need for Delhi to retain its very special heritage stamp endowed by several empires over the centuries.

Clearly, this Jindal property has become a test case not only for the Delhi government, which has been waxing eloquent about the city’s extraordinary heritage character, but also for conservationists nationwide.

Experts also point out that Jindal, who should have been setting an example as a Congress MP, could open the floodgates for other demolitions by private property owners.

Jindal, vacationing in London, was unable for comment, but his architect, Ravi Kaimal, argued that the property did not have any historical or architectural significance. Kaimal, in fact, did not even initially agree that the property belonged to Jindal, but to a company called Mineral Management Services India Pvt. Ltd.

According to S K Mishra, chairman of INTACH, a non-profit organisation that is devoted to conserving national heritage, ``Lutyen’s Delhi should be a protected zone. If a beginning is made with the demolition of this building, then other owners may also follow. Nothing will then be left of Lutyens Delhi.’’

The Jindal house, set in a plot of 3.8 acres, is currently before the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) set up by the Supreme Court in 2004-5. A sub-committee of the HCC which looked into the matter a couple of months ago, pointed out that the house, indeed, had ``historical and sociological interest.’’

The Supreme Court in fact only got into the conservation battle after INTACH carried out a mammoth listing of Delhi’s heritage buildings, from 1995-2000, the first time such an exercise had ever been carried out and which won it many international awards.

But Jindal’s architect is dismissive about the effort. ``It has many factual errors. It was carried out by well-intentioned volunteers, youngsters, who roamed around the streets of Delhi on their motor-bikes,’’ said Ravi Kaimal.

INTACH members, many of whom participated in the listing, are furious at Kaimal’s comments. Jaipal Reddy’s ministry of Urban Development has also got into the act. Question is, on whose side will the government now rule? Delhi waits and watches with bated breath.


ENDS