Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment plan: Apex court likely to hear plea against project next week

Tushar Gandhi claimed that he “is apprehensive that the nature of redevelopment and over-sized involvement of the government authorities in the conception and execution of the said project, the ashram may lose the Gandhian ethos that has been painstakingly preserved by the Trust”.

He contended that the Gujarat High Court had dismissed his plea on “merely by relying upon the oral submission and verbal undertaking given by the learned Advocate General on record”. His petition added that the AG’s statement “does not address the apprehensions of the petitioner” and that the court “incorrectly” recorded that all issues raised in the petition were covered.

The SLP before the SC added that the HC’s order is “bad in law” and that it has “failed to consider that the said project is merely a waste of the taxpayer’s money”.

The state, he said, had told the High Court that the ashram, which stretches across one acre, would remain untouched, and that only the 55 acres of land surrounding it would be developed.

Tushar Gandhi, however, said that the significance of the place was not limited to the one-acre but covered the entire property measuring about 100 acres on the banks of the Sabarmati river. “The land serves as a source of inspiration and stands as a monument to Gandhiji’s life mission,” he said.

He is seeking an order declaring that any redevelopment work that is sought to be done at the Ashram, “should be spearheaded by the Trusts which presently run the Ashram”, and under the aegis of National Gandhi Smarak Nidhi.

The Gujarat government in the first official move towards executing the Gandhi Ashram redevelopment had put out a resolution dated March 5, 2021, constituting a governing council headed by Gujarat Chief Minister and an executive council headed by the chief principal secretary to the CM, for the Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development Project.

The resolution issued by the Industries and Mines department designates the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Ltd (SRFDCL) as the implementing authority.

The SLP submits that the Gujarat government through the project, “seeks to fundamentally change the very nature of the place” and that it is “diametrically opposed to the personal wishes and bequest of Mahatma Gandhi, according to his written instruction dated 30.09.1993 which as far as Sabarmati Ashram is concerned should be treated as Gandhiji’s will”.