A senior Indian politician has caused outrage by building a large mansion including a bullet-proof bathroom using £5.8m of taxpayer money.
K Chandrashekhar Rao, the Chief Minister of the Southern Indian state of Telangana, had commissioned the 100,000 sq feet property to be built in a prime location in the state capital, Hyderabad City.
In addition to the extra safe bathroom, the building named Pragathi Bhavan includes an auditorium that can accommodate 250 people and a meeting hall that can hold 500 people.
Mr Rao did not move into the house until it was blessed in a series of rituals by his spiritual guru, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy.
The Chief Minister is a devotee of vaastu, an ancient Hindu series of beliefs regarding architecture – similar to Feng shui. Pragathi Bhavan was built according to this custom described by some critic
Political commentator, Kingsuk Nag, told BBC the house illustrate’s Mr Rao’s “feudal” mentality.
He said: “It’s like the good old days when the feudal lord would have a castle that would have a house as well as his office.
“And, then the subjects would say, oh, what a big palace.”
Earlier this month, Mr Rao caused consternation by announcing plans to destroy the state government complex due to it being “unlucky” and erecting a new one at the cost of £42m.
The complex which centres around the 19th century Saifabad Palace was thought to be unlucky to its first intended resident – the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahboob Ali Pasha.
Mr Rao has inherited this dislike for the building, adding that it does not conform to vaastu principles.
He said: “Definitely this secretariat has bad vaastu. History is proof that no-one has prospered because of this. Let Telangana not suffer.”
Courtesy: Independent