UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s visit to Agra’s Taj Mahal, broom in hand, has both literal and metaphorical significance. There is a deeper meaning to be read in the official endorsement of India’s most recognisable icon. The monument to love has of late been buffeted by political winds, with ruling party leaders making noises about its genesis, dragging it into a needless communal debate. The CM’s stand reaffirming the Taj as a great symbol of creative Indian architecture of a bygone age and his stressing the need to keep its environs clean to enhance its magnetic attraction to tourism is critical at a time when India’s image as a tourist destination is at risk following the horrific attack on a young Swiss couple at Fatehpur Sikri.
National Crime Bureau statistics may show a declining trend in crimes against foreign tourists, but that’s of little comfort when something like the ambushing of the Swiss couple by a mob occurs. To promote tourism and hope to improve on the 8.97 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2016, India must make a conscious effort to create a safe and secure environment, specially around tourist spots. It is ironic that while authoritarian China offers good facilities and perfect safety, democratic India is unable to guarantee foreign tourists’ safety. Any hit to the nation’s due to the kind of lawlessness seen in UP can have a negative effect on tourist arrivals as much as the sexual assaults reported with regularity from various metros. It’s time to act positively to ensure tourism, with its 9.6 per cent contribution to GDP, is not damaged.
