The new Parliament building was inaugurated with much pomp and show yesterday, but the question needs to be asked, "Did we really need a new building ?" To answer that we don't have to look far. The British Parliament housed in Westminster was built in the 1860s and has undergone successive renovations and upgrades to keep up with changed technological requirements of a new era.The US Capitol building's neoclassical building envelope has similarly remained unchanged in over two centuries, yet internally the structure has undergone substantial alterations to make it compatible with the demands of the 21st century. Underground rooms capable of surviving a nuclear blast were added, as were numerous additional offices, it was structurally rehabilitated in the 1980s with additional steel reinforcement and high strength concrete. Even the German Parliament housed in the Reichstag building built in 1899 was completely refurbished to meet modern challenges ; it is interesting to note that the outer shell was left intact to maintain continuity with the past while the interiors were totally transformed by a team of capable architects and engineers working in conjunction with the German government. Similarly India should have investigated possibilities of similar upgrades , maybe innovative solutions could have emerged. As of now there are no plans to demolish the old building but given the authoritarian government in the saddle this might just be the case in future , the oft repeated statement that we need to 'shed the vestiges of our colonial legacy ' / ' get rid of symbols of slavery' might be trotted out to grind a magnificent building to dust.
