Protesting in Memoriam

Homi Bhabha’s bungalow is to be auctioned off but atomic energy employees want it as a memorial

The sale of the nuclear physicist Dr Homi Bhabha’s palatial bungalow in Mumbai is expected to fetch a record price. Called Mehrangir—a combination of Bhabha’s parents’ names, Meherbai and Jehangir—this three-storey bungalow on Malabar Hill where Bhabha spent much of his life is to be auctioned on 18 June. A reserve price of Rs 257 crore has been set for it, but it is expected to fetch a lot more.

News of the auction has, however, sparked off a protest. Employees and scientists working for India’s Department of Atomic Energy and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, which Bhabha founded, don’t want the bungalow to be sold to a private body but preserved as a memorial. After having written to Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group, and the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), which belongs to the Tata Group and is the current custodian of the bungalow, members of the National Federation of Atomic Energy Employees (NFAEE) have started an online petition appealing to the two not to auction the bungalow.

According to Prashant Worlikar, president of the NFAEE-affiliated Atomic Energy Workers and Staff Union, employees working for DAE have volunteered to contribute a minimum of two days’ salary to raise money to bid for the bungalow.

But according to their estimates, they will be able to collect only about Rs 30 crore. “If there can be temples for gods and memorials for leaders, why can’t Mehrangir be converted into a memorial for Dr Bhabha. For us, he is our god,” Worlikar says.

The bungalow has a builtup area of 13,953 sq feet and a plot measuring 17,150 sq feet. After Dr Bhabha’s death in 1966, his brother Jamshed Bhabha became the custodian of the property. In 2007, the property was passed on to the NCPA, which Jamshed had set up with JRD Tata.

The protestors will soon approach the chairman of DAE and politicians standing in the South Mumbai Lok Sabha constituency to intervene.

About The Author

Lhendup G Bhutia

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