Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project, adding one more feather in his cap about preserving Hindu heritage.
The Shri Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, was dedicated to the nation on December 13, 2021. One of the 12 Jyotirlingams and a prime shrine for the Hindu faith, the Kashi Vishwanath temple, once a grand temple, was surrounded by encroachments and chaos. Now, the same area has everything in order.
Those who have seen Kashi Vishwanath temple before the Corridor project started have witnessed the chaos. For them, the site is now no less than a dream. The Prime Minister’s dream project, his resolution to build a grant corridor to connect Maa Ganga to Vishwanath Mandir, took 33 months to become a reality. On March 8, 2019, PM Modi had laid the foundation of the corridor project. The chief architect of the project is Bimal Patel. He was also behind the Sabarmati River Front project and Central Vista Project.
The Print spreads misapprehensions about The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project
Now, as PM Modi inaugurated the Corridor and proceeded in the direction of restoring Varanasi to its past glory, it is worth noting how Shekhar Gupta’s The Print had tried to cast a pal over the restoration project and stoked fallacious notions about it.
In an interview back in January 2020 with the chief architect of the Kashi Vishwanath Project Bimal Patel, Jyoti Malhotra of The Print insinuated that the Kashi Vishwanath Project was PM Modi’s vanity project—a mistaken belief often peddled by the Left to belittle PM Modi’s push for building infrastructure. The journalist then went on to surmise that the project entailed the destruction of centuries-old temples.
However, Bimal Patel promptly corrected her, asserting that her beliefs were not grounded in facts and motivated by anti-Modi propaganda. Patel said it was not temples but buildings that were encroached upon ancient temples that were demolished as a part of the Kashi Vishwanath Project.
“Have you seen the pictures? There are terrific pictures of buildings and their concrete beams resting on temples and only when the buildings were removed did you find the temples inside. In fact, we are weaving them inside the design of the Corridor,” Patel said.
But The Print journalist did not seem to be the one who would be chastened by factual details. She then went on to question Patel if hundreds of buildings that were being demolished for the project had a character of their own. To this, Patel said everything acquires a character of its own if left to its own devices.
“Yeah, you are correct. The buildings had a character of their own. So did the slum in the areas. You had sewage flowing freely. You had encroachments on top of temples, sewage dribbling down the sides of the building. All of this has character. But there are 100,000 pilgrims coming here on certain days, it is a security nightmare. Do you know who first proposed this idea? It was Gandhi,” Patel said.
