Rashtrapati Bhavan: Highest office being laid low by layers of tarmac

The highest office of the land is being laid low — by asphalt. The Rashtrapati Bhavan, the iconic palace on top of Raisina Hill, is home to President Pranab Mukherjee. Its four floors and 340 rooms are topped off by a dome, which is all you can see from the foot of the hill. The reason is many layers of asphalt to pave the road leading to the President’s Estate, over time. At this rate, the Bhavan could be lost to sight within a few years. That would be a pity, for its makers, the architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, wanted to position it so as to awe native subjects about the scale and grandeur of Empire. Thus, it is appropriate that the slow disappearance of Rashtrapati Bhavan was flagged off by the National Disaster Management department.

Actually, the view of Rashtrapati Bhavan has been controversial from the day it was constructed. In 1922, Lutyens and Baker wrote furious letters blaming the other for the “wrong” elevation of the building, which prevented subjects, standing at the foot of the hill, from seeing the entire structure looming over them. Democratic India has adapted to the idea of the building coming into view as one gradually ascends the hill, just as it is used to the idea that its occupant’s powers are rather less than those enjoyed by the Viceroy. But it would be a pity if the entire view got buried under asphalt.