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Twilight of the Taj Mahal

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#91

Post by mdani »

The need to maintain Taj is not new, in fact just a couple of decades after its construction in 17th century, the dome leaked and it had to be repaired. As Mughal reign fell into decline, the plunder began and the British were not left behind. The precious stones were removed from inlays, furniture was plundered and even plans were made to dismantle and auction the marble.

One must evaluate the decline of Taj in this broader context. It is currently maintained by ASI and they have replaced many precious stones abd repaired the Taj as much as they can. Unfortunately they do not always follow the same medival construction methods and do not have adequate funds, so repairs do fail.

Polloution is terrible in Delhi- Agra corridor but one must balance the needs of the poor to earn a living vs. the needs of the tourists to see the Taj in pristine condition. For this reason a blanket ban will not work in practice.

I think the BBC article is one sided, and the complexity of the situation needs to be taken into account before painting a pessimistic picture.

Aga Khan trust has done excellent work in Humayun's tomb and I think it is a better model for moving forward.

https://youtu.be/eCLEFJU1p5A

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#92

Post by drieddust »

kamaal wrote: post #89
drieddust wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the landlords are not the IT guys mind you. They are mostly the former farmers who have held large pieces of land around towns. I don't know about Bangalore, but farmer communities around Delhi have grown rich by coming together as vote bank and getting compensated multiple times for the same pieces of lad they. > Also you don't even have to go that far, even in the 1990s, during the peak of onsite-money tech…

>>Most of the landlords are not the IT guys mind you. Yes, that exactly what I'm saying. If you have a 20+ year timescale you don't have to earn very high to make these investments. >>but farmer communities around Delhi have grown rich by coming together as vote bank and getting compensated multiple times for the same pieces of lad they. They have a right to. Getting rich isn't exactly a crime. >>How many were employ…

> Nothing immoral going on here.

Then we agree that moralize the choice kid is making is completely uncalled for. Capitalism is driven by greed of money so bringing any other criteria except money does not make sense unless it is applied uniformly.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#93

Post by dang »

ihtjmbbc123 wrote: post #61
ameen wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your handle says it all - I hate Taj Mahal BBC, and your comment reads like a bullet list from a government apologist. Addressing basic needs are not massive progress, the government is expected to do these things in response to the growing taxation, it's not a favor but their duty. India's whole problem is mismanagement and corruption, and the current culture placing profiteering over everything else and the parent…

ih is internet hindu a label created for us by marxists

We've banned this account for trolling.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#94

Post by dang »

kamaal wrote: post #73
ihtjmbbc123 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ih is internet hindu a label created for us by marxists

Whoa! A handle made 3 hours back, just to reply to comments. How do you get paid? Per hour? Per comment?

Breaking the site guidelines will get your account banned regardless of how wrong someone else was. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules when posting here.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#95

Post by lokeshk »

mikekchar wrote: post #41
osrec wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The NHS in the UK is free. And they don't stop till you're either better or dead. The US health system is messy, but that's no example to go by. In India, they're not just nitpicking your insurance policy, but doing underhand things like pumping warm water into clinically dead victims to give their families false hope, so they keep paying the ICU fees (anecdote from a friend - he was eventually alerted to t…

The thing that blows me away about the NHS is that it will even pay for emergency treatment for tourists !

It’s called “emergency” for a reason.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#96

Post by jeremysalwen »

svat wrote: post #15
jeremysalwen wrote: post #4

Seems surprising to me that the supreme court is so involved in this issue. In the United States, the supreme court tries its hardest to avoid answering a question if it can, and certainly tries to avoid anything that looks like it's writing a new law. Can someone who is more knowledgeable comment on this?

In India, the Supreme Court is enthusiastically involved in many things. It considers it to be its job to keep the government honest, etc. See this blog post on the tenure of the most recent Chief Justice of India, by a lawyer and expert: https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/ends-without-... (See also: https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2018/10/30/constituting-... )

It seems to me based on the articles you linked that the Indian Supreme Court flagrantly disregards the constitution regularly!
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