New Delhi: Its red sandstone boundary walls are defaced with posters and betel juice marks. Shopkeepers hang cases full of clothes and jewellery on them. Inside the walls the dry fountains gather dust and filth. This is the state of the maosoleum of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India's first education minister, whose 125th birth anniversary will be observed.
Situated in the heart of the bustling Meena Bazar, the garden-tomb of India's prominent independence leader and close associate of Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister, the mausoleum is surrounded by numerous shops selling food, mobiles, CDs, clothes and other knick-knacks. Open sewers and a dump yard nearby tell a tale of unbelievable civic and governmental neglect.
Apart from the apathy of the authorities in maintaining the site, what stands out is that even most residents are not even aware about the mausoleum of a leader who is credited with establishing a national education system and modern institutes of higher education, including the Indian Institutes of Technology. His birth anniversary is also observed as National Education Day.
Walking down the winding by-lanes in search of the mausoleum, one is startled to learn that most of the locals are oblivious of his name, leave alone the location of the memorial. It's indeed ironic how the man who persuaded thousands of Muslims during partition to stay back in India is now a forgotten man.
The boundary walls of his mausoleum have become billboards for local politicians, quacks and restaurants, while the temporary stalls adjacent to these walls have further damaged it by hammering nails and creating deep holes in places.
