It cannot be too late for a citizens’ movement to impress on the Centre the need to save the tattered remains of what we called gorer math from falling into the clutches of a government that is beholden to businessmen, especially contractors and builders. These promoters and profiteers must already be salivating at the prospect of the rich dividend from a thousand acres of prime urban land if Subhas Chakraborty has his way.

The “possessional right” (quoting Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) to gorer math, field of the fort, vests in the Union government and hence the people. The army is custodian because the Maidan, bounded by Esplanade Row, Chowringhee, the Hooghly and Tolly’s nullah, is Fort William’s glacis — the open land beyond the ramparts where attackers are exposed to fire. While the nature of warfare has changed since Siraj-ud-Daulah captured the original fort, Tuesday’s ambush in Lahore confirmed that terrorists have brought back many conventional forms of attack and defence. Camouflaging military purpose, the Maidan grew “into a beautiful park, the pride and adornment of a beautiful city”, as a chronicler recorded in 1905. Four years later, H.E.A. Cotton thought the wide expanse dotted with “a number of fine tanks” presented “a most refreshing appearance to the eye, the heavy night dew, even in the hot season, keeping the grass green”. Many of the majestic trees that succumbed to the cyclone of 1864 had been replaced “and the handsome avenues across the Maidan still constitute the chief glory of Calcutta”. At a much later date, Sir Paul Benthall lovingly described the splendour of those trees.

How much of that magnificence has survived the neglect, ignorance and venality of populist politicians? It’s difficult to discern the real motive behind their actions, especially when they have ideological pretensions. But West Bengal’s transport and sports minister gave the game away when he grumbled about “such a valuable place” being used for “bogus things’’ like golf and horse-racing. These sports may not appeal to everyone but they ensure a well-tended, pollution-free expanse of green that even Calcutta’s poor can enjoy at no cost to the exchequer. Gorer math is also the venue every Sunday of a huge mela for Hindi-speaking labourers. Chakraborty’s obsession with “value” will drive them away too so that favoured builders make hay under the Marxist sun. We can expect an office block here, a shopping mall there, a residential highrise not far away, petrol pumps, recreation centres and a transit camp for Gangasagar pilgrims, all built by the party’s financiers. The burnt and stinking patch of a residual space for political rallies, fairs and exhibitions will create a slum in the heart of the city. With elections ahead and graffiti gangs on the prowl, the Maidan would be a feather in the Left Front’s cap.

A city of Calcutta’s size and with its tradition of mass participation in political and cultural events certainly needs a meeting ground like Delhi’s Pragati Maidan or Boat Club. That is why hope soared after the 2003 Industrial India Trade Fair when Nirupam Sen promised a permanent fair ground off the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. The trade fair’s 700 stalls drew more than 800,000 visitors and the commerce and industries minister probably realized that such events would multiply and expand as his efforts to revive West Bengal’s stagnant economy made headway. The Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of the fair organizers, promised help.

Sen’s commitment became even more relevant the following year when two-and-a-half million visitors tramped through the 29th Calcutta Book Fair. His boss might like to see them as intellectual adventurers seeking the truth in Mayakovsky and Márquez to the strains of Rabindrasangeet, but regular visitors to the book fair know better. Hordes of people on an evening’s outing throng the food stalls, enjoy the marvels of foreign pavilions and crowd into the shamiana for entertainment. The BenFish stall probably attracts more customers than most booksellers. But being Big Bazaar under the fig-leaf of culture doesn’t diminish a popular event that is a commercial draw.

Not that the organizers could take any pride in the rough ground, clouds of dust, empty spaces and rubbish heaps of this year’s Milan Mela. Indecipherably printed on cheap paper, the site map needed a magnifying glass. Some stalls remained untenanted. There seemed fewer large stalls and fewer with books of merit, but that is a matter of taste. The Food Court, insulting a concept borrowed from Singapore, meant haphazard shacks surrounded by filthy debris and hardly any chairs or drinking water.

The government had several years to level the site, erect permanent gateways, plan car parks, create walkways, roundabouts, gardens, fountains, stalls and toilets. Those who sponsor the Left Front in return for permits and sanctions could have funded the project. Relays of shuttle buses would have drawn Milan Mela closer to town. Were its discomforts planned to justify a grab at the Maidan? One never knows with politicians. The Left Front once promised a leading cultural personality someone else’s gracious south-of-Park-Street house and even volunteered to install a lift for the celebrity. When the disobliging existing tenant went to court in protest, the government pleaded the building was needed for “weaker section” housing. No doubt, Marxist tacticians thought “weaker section” sounded more in keeping with their professed ideology. Given the climate of opinion at the time, they probably also calculated that no judge would dare to reject an appeal that invoked (however falsely) the poor.

We have known a market catch fire and a sturdy gatepost knocked down, both “accidentally”, because they stood in the way of what is called development. Despite promises, nothing remains of the Bedi Palace near the lakes. A prominent park in Rawdon Street was allowed to deteriorate into a dump so that it could be handed over to a business group with the plea that the conversion of a rubbish heap into a multistorey car park would be a bonus for citizens. No one mentioned the fortune the promoter would make. Mercifully, the trick didn’t succeed. That tactic was repeated with Charlie Chaplin Park in Ballygunge as this column lamented in October 2007. Much of what used to be Curzon Park has been reduced to a desolate wasteland. Attempted beautification (like clumsy stucco animals in Park Circus maidan) produced pathetic results.

None of this questions the legitimate need for industrial land in Nandigram, Singur and elsewhere. Those who thwarted those projects did so with no concern for West Bengal’s future. They knowingly acted for rival business houses. It must also be admitted that the Left Front does not have a monopoly of ramshackle unaesthetic structures. The Maidan’s Bidhan Market and the long-distance bus depot are eyesores that ought to be razed or removed. But most parks, stadiums and sports complexes have deteriorated during the last 22 years. If a park is well maintained, it’s usually maintained by the army or a private company.

Some of the encroachment on the Maidan is of an unbelievable ugliness. The police station used to be a delightful bungalow with a red-tiled roof setting off the sylvan attractiveness of gorer math. But the point is not the beauty or ugliness of present or future buildings. Even pleasing architecture would infringe on open space whose value lies in being just that. We need sound maintenance and a firm moratorium on construction.

Both are ruled out if A.K. Antony gives in to Chakraborty and Bhattacharjee. The army is a preferable guardian because it has no need (as yet) to woo voters or ingratiate itself with businessmen in the name of the poor. As an institution, it is still not driven by greed for money. It is in the Calcutta public’s interest to let gorer math remain with the gor.