A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the National Emblem atop the new Parliament building, a new dispute developed, this time over the lions’ facial expressions on it. While opposition parties accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making the ceremony a ‘personal event holding ceremonies of one particular religion’ yesterday, opposition members and activists today accused the government of ‘distorting’ the ‘National Emblem’ by replacing the ‘graceful and regally confident’ Ashoka lions with those with a ‘menacing and aggressive posture’.
The Lion Capital has four lions mounted on a circular abacus and is part of the National Emblem of India. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJP says the lions on the new sculpture appear to have a ‘man-eater tendency’, while the original ones had a ‘controlled regal look’ about them.
‘To entirely alter the character and essence of the lions on Ashoka’s pillar at Sarnath is a flagrant affront to India’s National Symbol!’ slammed senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. ‘ Narendra Modi Ji, please observe the face of the Lion, whether it is portraying the statue of Great Sarnath or a twisted image of the GIR lion,’ his party colleague Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury added. ‘Please examine it and, if necessary, repair it.’
Meddling with our national emblem was totally unnecessary and avoidable, writes historian S Irfan Habib. The BJP hit back saying that beauty is famously regarded as lying in the eyes of the beholder. Why should our lions look ferocious and full of angst? These are Ashoka’s lions adapted by independent India in 1950.
The BJP again accused the opposition of equating 2D graphics in paper to an intimidating 3D edifice. The National Emblem atop India’s new Parliament building is a modification of Asoka’s Sarnath Lion Capital, which is conserved in the Sarnath Museum. ‘ There is no change. The contradiction contrasts 2D visuals in print with an intimidating 3D structure. They’ve lost it,’ claimed Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT cell.
The sculpture’s designers declared that there was ‘no deviance’, and that the National Emblem atop the new Parliament was an identical replica of the original. ‘Every aspect has been scrutinised. Lions have the same personality. There may be subtle changes, and people may perceive things differently. It is a big statue, and images taken from various perspectives may provide varied impressions. They remarked, ‘The original shows them with their jaws open, precisely like the ones above the new Parliament’.
The 6.5-metre-high National Emblem, cast at the top of the new Parliament building’s Central Foyer, is composed of bronze and weighs 9,500 kg. To sustain the Emblem, a steel supporting structure weighing around 6,500 kg was built. Tata Projects is constructing the building, which is the focal point of the Central Vista development.
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