https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/daylight-robbery-at-adil-shah-palace/articleshow/67119399.cms
An ugly surprise awaits visitors to Serendipity Arts Festival 2018 when they ascend the staircase to the immensely historic Adil Shah palace on the Panjim waterfront. One side of the sprawling first floor hosts superbly curated exhibitions by Rahaab Allana and Ranjit Hoskote – two of the very best from India’s art world – amongst others. Those galleries brim full of spectacular images and artworks. But the rest of the space officially dedicated by the state to public cultural events is inexplicably closed off. It has been hijacked in plain sight by the perpetrators of Panjim’s increasingly outrageous “Smart City” scam. It’s hard to imagine how this could happen after two full decades of government-appointed studies and committees which consistently reiterated the magnificent Adil Shah palace (formerly also the old state secretariat) has to be strictly reserved to host art and culture events, including a permanent collection of paintings to honour the extraordinary legacy of 20thcentury Goans who profoundly shaped Indian modernism: Trindade, da Fonseca, Francis Newton Souza, Vasudeo Gaitonde, and Laxman Pai. That very public understanding is now being betrayed openly. Even by the unbelievably poor standards of recent years, it’s an unconscionable travesty. If civilizations can be defined by single structures, that is what the Adil Shah palace means to Goa. Long before there was a city in Panjim, this particular spot was already formidably fortified. There is one plausible theory the city derives its name from five turrets that sprouted from what was latterly the summer palace of the Bijapuri dynasty. Later, after the incredible rise followed by abrupt decline of what is now Old Goa, this magnificent building became the seat of the Viceroy of the Estado da India, exerting power and influence across the vast maritime empire extending from Timor and Macau to Mozambique on the opposite side of the Indian ocean. More recently, it housed the state legislature. All that amazing history is traduced by the covert seizure of the historic monument, in the unforgivable absence of public consultation or meaningful oversight. All those glorious gallery spaces are now private domain. Excellent restoration of the building to global standards has been subverted, with air-conditioning ducts and vents punched into 500-year-old walls. Bureaucrats twiddle thumbs under million-dollar lighting systems that were imported specifically for viewing artworks. Perhaps worst of all, the heist of one side of the top floor has rendered the exhibition spaces totally inaccessible to the disabled, elderly and wheel-chair bound. This is the extent of Panjim’s “smart city” farce. Adding insult to injury is the fact this is the 175thanniversary of Panjim becoming capital of Goa, a signal moment which signified tremendous power shifting from the colonial state to native elites. So many important civic developments happened here first: the first girl’s school in India, the first public library. It was the first city in the subcontinent to lay itself out in a grid, with ample sidewalks, very good drainage, and plenty of parks and gardens to allow breathing space. The rise of ‘Nova Goa’ was an epic event for native self-confidence, and it’s painful to acknowledge the state has done nothing to commemorate the milestone anniversary, but the same Serendipity Arts Festival will (in an exhibition co-curated by this writer). In recent years, the long-suffering citizens of India’s smallest state have resigned themselves to abysmal governance in the absence of leadership. They have weathered scandal and disappointment, and been forced to tolerate endless incompetence. For some time now, it has been clear that extra-smart operators are royally ripping off the exchequer in Panjim’s name. All that is bad enough, but monument-grabbing is another level of outrage, being undertaken in the most brazen and bullying manner possible. It’s hard to imagine how much worse could possibly be in store, but we are sure to find out in 2019.
