I wonder how much money has changed hands in this case.

Among the organs of state, the common citizen can only look towards the judiciary for help in this day and age. The executive and legislature are as corrupt as they come and, so, obviously, are not too enamoured of ‘judicial activism’.

Well, to be fair to them, the much-maligned bureaucrats seem to be marching in step with “civil society”. Barring a handful of drawing-room activists, have you seen anyone actually protesting the plans for the so-called modernisation of the Jama Masjid area?

Don’t forget that the plan has been approved by everyone from the Shahi Imam to the local Member of Parliament!

Dastagir wrote: “JAWAHARLAL NEHRU was the greatest Hindu.”

Oh please, the man was a self-confessed agnostic, someone whose approach to faith, any faith, was purely aesthetic. (For want of a better word!) He wasn’t a Hindu, or a Christian, or a Muslim, or anything at all — simply a prancing popinjay who thought his supposed intellect made him better than the practitioner of any faith.

I have no idea why you keep dragging up comparisons with contemporary Pakistan. If compare you must, then do so with both nations as they were before 1991, when a bankrupt India was forced to break loose the socialistic shackles that her first Prime Minister had wrought.

Your precious Nehru, Sir, was a failure on every front. I may accept if you insist that he acted with the best and purest of motives, but that serves only to underline the truth of the adage that the path to Hell is paved with good intentions.

It isn’t just the Jama Masjid proper but large tracts of land around it that fall under the Waqf Board — which stands to gain by the commercialisation of the area.

So — surprise, surprise! — the family and the supporters of the Shahi Imam are backing the proposal all the way. (As is the local Congress M.P..)

Her point about Jawaharlal Nehru is ill-taken; it was during his regime, back in the 1950s, that the city walls of Shahjahanabad were brought down in the name of easing traffic. (The last remnants are those unhappy stubs of the old gatehouses that you see as you pass Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg into the Old City proper.)

The “original residents of the city”? Delhi was old when the rulers of Ghazni and Ghor came calling, older still when Shahjahan came rolling up the Yamuna to build (yet another) city of Delhi.

Sadia : You have been writing for years… basically i wanted you to set up a school in your old home. You sold it away (for whatever reason)… Now you have shrunk… Why did you not go for institution-building. You have a small family… you wouldnt have starved ! You are aware of the fact taht we are looked as the Nawabs who “sell” their homes, jewelry etc… People laugh behind our backs ! We are an “item number” thrown in…. as MJ Akbar rightly put it… Now you cannot do anything substantial, but write columns… That means, we lost out on one talent. You have 10 productive years of your life.. you could have built a fine school. Why didnt you do it…

Kiran Bedi did it… (in old Delhi).. Nafisa Ali… is doing such superb work on AIDS… Nafisa to me.. symbolises ETERNAL BEAUTY. I have a picture of her on my desk.. smiling.. She has a mother’s twinkle in her eye. She is the most beautiful person… in and out…. and the best part is… Nafisa’s work for soceity. She has truly grown tall. This girl from La Martiniere, Calcutta….

The destruction of valuable heritage is poignantly aching. I have never visited Delhi, but, have engaged in learning about the various dynamics of the country, and its vast richness to history. Jama Masjid is one of the very places I would like to visit in Delhi. The commercial arena of life is very distressing, especially when a heritage is attacked by means of pro-creating wealth, as the malls would do just that! Why should Jama Masjid be compromised, as this place has a historical and cultural standing, where as mentioned by Sadia, “the blood of freedom fighters was shed in plenty.” The capitalists should seize their greed in destroying a ‘priceless’ monument.

I am reminded of a poem by one of the PWA (progressive writers association) poet named Akhtar-ul-Iman,

“Big cities, my friend, are for big projects:
speeches of honoured ministers, processions of leaders,
marches, demonstrations, unity and all that.
This is the place for night people, decadence -
whoever told you this was a center for learning?

But there are those in here who are nameless;
came to laugh at the golden city
but they had a long way to go,
those who came to build this world.
They all had big hearts, big souls,
were full of knowledge, wit,
but in the politics of the world were small.
A big city is for big works my friend!

A breaking heart is not a rocket that you can see;
in a big city, who can hear a scream? ”

Let us in unison make them ‘hear our scream’, not let them destroy our heritage. The azaan of Jama Masjid cannot be replaced by the ringing cashiers of the plan to architect a mall….