Editorial
Louis Kahn's legacy under assault again
Let Jatiyo Sangsad keep its architectural grandeur
THE plans formulated about what was then given out as Pakistan's second capital in Dhaka (and that was in the early 1960s) were aimed at marking off and developing an area to be noted for its architectural as well as aesthetic beauty. In time, as a result of Bangladesh's War of Liberation, the second capital became Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, housing the Jatiyo Sangsad and the sprawling verdant area around it. Conceived and shaped into form and substance by the reputed Louis Kahn, the area was expected to maintain its pristine nature and serve as a proper and elegant symbol of Bangladesh's democratic politics. That, unfortunately, appears to have been an aim much to be trifled with. As a report and a photograph in yesterday's issue of this newspaper show, for yet one more time the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar complex is under grievous assault and this time in a way that can only leave the entire structural pattern of the area mutilated.
The tragedy is that it has always been the government, at a given point in time, which has systematically brought the Jatiyo Sangsad area to a bad pass. Now, it appears, the authorities are busy destroying the beauty of the area by leasing out land within the JS complex area to a civil service training academy and to an office of the United Nations. If this plan comes through, much of the artistic quality which has always defined the area will have been spoilt, thus making the spot yet one more of the ubiquitous specimens of drab realities we have seen grow in this traditionally unplanned capital. Why the government should go for such a move is not only puzzling but bizarre as well. As it is, only a few years ago, a howl of protest was raised when reports emerged of part of the area being used to build residences for the speaker and deputy speaker of the JS. That was not the way things were supposed to be, for once the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar region was completed in the early 1970s, it was expected to stay that way for good without any additions or encroachments coming in. The very first instance of the JS area being subjected to misuse and mutilation came when the government, then headed by Acting President Abdus Sattar, decided in June 1981 that assassinated president Ziaur Rahman would be buried beside the crescent lake adjacent to the parliament building. The decision was made in the heat and emotion of the moment and no one among the policy makers remembered (or they simply ignored it) the fact that the architectural design of the place had no place for a burial ground to be there.
In the circumstances, we urge the authorities to rethink the plan to lease out land in the JS area to the civil service college and the UN office. If lines are not drawn here, there will soon be time when other protected and structured areas will come under the axe as well.
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