Russia, still suffering the trials and tribulations of a society adjusting to liberation from suffocating State control, has done more for its cultural institutions than India has done for its own. The ‘command’ performance of Indian bureaucrats handling culture has let us down in an unimaginable manner. Our National Museum, the repository of our extraordinary legacy, is in a shambles. It is uninviting, dark and dingy, with unaesthetic and careless displays, disorderly signage and with an unmistakable aura of neglect and rot, when compared to the museums of Moscow. The comparison is instructive because both countries, while being ruled by babus who find reasons to stall and disallow change and growth, have achieved dissimilar results. Russia respects its past, its historical and cultural traditions, in spite of having endured dictatorial regimes and upheavals that could have destroyed everything. The Russians have put culture on a high pedestal, conserved and protected their art, buildings, and even their icons and churches through the decades of communist rule.

We in democratic India, professing to care and conserve, have managed to destroy with impunity within the framework of democracy, with the freedom of expression intact. It is shameful. The National Museum belongs to India and is held in trust by the State. Its condition is pathetic, to say the least, and wholly unacceptable. There is no excuse whatsoever for its condition. The standard excuse, offered year after year, has been that most of the senior positions are lying vacant and that the directors holding temporary charge have no time to spare. This is shocking for a start, and reveals how inept and unconcerned the authorities are about India and its many legacies. Pride is necessary for any kind of development and growth.

Rotten boat

India is constantly tortured with unpleasant realities ranging from wholesale corruption in the public domain to efforts to keep a redundant and consumptive status quo alive. Bureaucrats wallow in this comfort zone much like large buffaloes in a village pool. Because they are well-versed in the government rules and regulations, they actively stop and destroy any initiative that is taken to lift India out of the quagmire.

The bureaucrats institute committees with their cronies and colleagues — some of whom are on the lookout for support and succour from the government — but never with any professional who may dissent. The committees pronounce judgements and papers are drawn up, but nothing ever happens beyond that. In the bargain, simple clean-up operations are suspended and decay sets in rapidly. The incompetent amongst the babus endorse the ‘standstill’ lest their fundamental ineptitude is revealed. The entry of fresh ideas is seen as unacceptable intervention because new concepts and qualified initiatives are bound to rock the rotting boat and display the truth. The truth has become an anathema for the bungling bureaucracy.

Projects are stalled just when they are about to be completed. Babus always scheme and plot to stop change in its tracks. They are, after all, in supreme command. This manipulative stance is totally wrong, and insulting for all citizens. There is no reason whatsoever for the National Museum to be in its present state. All the problems plaguing the museum must be remedied immediately to allow the dignity of culture to prevail. The museum’s pitiable state is truly shameful and at the same time, hurtful, because it is demeaning for us all. It makes one feel angry to see Indian heritage being insulted by the State itself. It is time to forge partnerships with professionals from civil society who can restore the museum till restructuring takes place.