Trinamul Rajya Sabha member from Bengal and former Union culture secretary Jawhar Sircar wrote to housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri on Saturday questioning the “deviations” and “distortions” in the national emblem cast installed atop the new Parliament building.

Sircar wrote to Puri: “The rather belligerent posture that the lions in the new sculpture appear to portray has not been missed by many. There are several other deviations from the original Sarnath model and these could easily be proved by comparison of accurate 3D images.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday unveiled the 6.5-metre-high cast of the national emblem atop the new Parliament building that is scheduled to open later this year. The emblem has invited allegations of distortion of and insult to India’s national emblem, with the Opposition and social activists pointing out that the lions in the cast are snarling — a departure from the picture of “restrained strength and peace” that the lions in Ashoka’s pillar at Sarnath present.

Responding to Puri’s defence that “if one looks at the Sarnath emblem from below it would look as calm or angry as the one being discussed”, Sircar said in his letter: “But, all citizens of India (expect a very few select ones) will have to view the national emblem from the ground — with all these consequent deviations. Architecture is an outstanding discipline and could perhaps minimise these ‘perspective distortions’. It appears such expert advice was not sought by your officials nor did the small group of experts, handpicked by you, offer to rectify this.”

“In fact, 3D computerised modelling could have ensured an exact copy of the original that the artists commissioned by you for this exercise could, quite sadly, not do. As you are aware, an exact replica of the national emblem does not either permit human error or ‘artistic licence’,” Sircar pointed out.

The MP asked: “We also seek to know the details of the process of selecting the artist, the brief given and the cost of the said artwork. Has this contributed in raising the original estimated cost of Rs 975 crore to the currently estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore? Moreover, did the proposal to install this sculpture specifically receive sanction from the Delhi Urban Art Commission, and the Heritage Conservation Committee, mandated by the Supreme Court order of 06 Jan 2021 regarding the new Parliament Building?”

Sircar pointed out that lessons should be learnt from a replica of similar scale atop Karnataka’s Vidhana Soudha — completed in 1956 — that has not faced the criticism that the Parliament sculpture has.

He signed off: “This error is now foisted far too high to be swept under the carpet any more….”