This with reference to the editorial ' Wah Taj. What a way to justify work on KA' ( TGE , July 14)'. It is something unimaginable that a parallel has been drawn by Art and Culture minister Govind Gaude between the Taj Mahal and Kala Academy on the subject of job tendering. It is a nice way of skirting the prime question of not following govt protocol that calls for mandatory quotations, for all public work undertaken, and in this case, the repair work of Kala Academy, that has cost the Goa govt a whopping Rs 56 crore instead of the estimated Rs 40 crore. Gaude should realise that we are now in the 21st century and not in the 17th century when the Taj Mahal was built with help of slave labour. It was a one-man show of might and power of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. So where was the question of tendering any work. Probably Gaude is following in the footsteps of his party leaders to castigate anything undertaken by earlier Mughal emperors like Babar, Aurangzeb and Shah Jahan.
