It is more than a trifle ironic that even when a controversy is raging over involving a private corporate entity in the maintenance of certain facilities at the Red Fort in the Capital, the apex court should have to flay the Archaeological Survey of India (the official agency mandated to protect the legacy of the nation’s rich history) for miserably failing to preserve Shah Jahan’s magnum opus ~ the Taj Mahal at Agra.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked if it would be best to get the ASI out of the picture and task some other agency with protecting the UNESCO-acclaimed World Heritage site, universally acclaimed as the world’s greatest monument to love.

While the white marble architectural marvel has been losing its sheen and “yellowing” for a few decades now, the court was appalled by recent photographs submitted by the petitioner that revealed green and brown patches. Their Lordships observed that had a 1996 order of the Supreme Court been effectively implemented, things would not have come to such a sorry pass.

The bench was irked not just by the ineffective conservation effort but also by the seemingly casual attitude of the ASI counsel who said algae that flourished in the stagnant water of the Yamuna were exacerbating the problem.

“Do algae fly” the court shot back, pointing to green patches at the top of the monument. It also ridiculed the ASI contention that visitors walking barefoot were spreading pollution. The bench rejected the ASI claim of making “best efforts” and retorted, “according to you there is no problem.

Look at the photographs. Do you want to say what you have been doing is sufficient. Remove ASI. Look for someone else” ~ it took some damage-control efforts of two Additional Solicitors General to assuage the court, and heed the government’s plea that an earlier suggestion to involve international experts would be involved ~ “this is not an adversarial litigation. Taj Mahal doesn’t belong to anybody” it said, calling for experts to be drafted into the conservation exercise.

Though nobody mentioned it in court, after some negative comments from political leaders in UP an impression is gaining ground that theTaj is not getting priority attention because of its Islamic origins ~ an ASG indirectly rubbished that line of thinking.

That thinking is reflected as part of a larger effort at re-writing history that has even degenerated into defacing the signboards of Akbar Road in the Capital. Religion-contaminated politics apart, the ASI is in need of a thorough overhaul, its maintenance of historical sites is as pathetic as their management.

And if, as the court suggested, international expertise is need there is no need to fight shy of seeking it. We owe the future as much as we are indebted to the past.