Mafia rules, OK?

They can demolish illegally constructed mosques in Islamabad but here in Delhi we get our khadi kurtas in a twist over razing unauthorised l...

They can demolish illegally constructed mosques in Islamabad but here in Delhi we get our khadi kurtas in a twist over razing unauthorised laundries. As Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit leads political Delhi8217;s brazen subversion of the rule of law, Islamic Pakistan8217;s ability to rid its Capital of even places of worship is just one reminder how low politics can sink in secular, democratic India. And while every political party is guilty, the Congress is guiltier than the rest. It both rules Delhi and rules India from Delhi. The Delhi High Court8217;s order that the city8217;s brick and mortar illegalities be demolished wasn8217;t just a technical reading of Delhi8217;s land use laws and by-laws. It was a blow against administrative venality and construction lobby crony capitalism. It was a much needed, if much delayed, corrective against a civic culture that has surrendered so much space to white collar thuggery. It was, most of all, an opportunity to start afresh.

But what does the Congress do? Its central leadership pretends the issue doesn8217;t exist and it allows its state unit and government to destroy a rare moment in which politics could have been a force for the greater good. Sheila Dikshit talks about a wave of fear in the city. The fear, chief minister, is that your cynically misplaced concern for people may have permanently consigned Delhi to being the courtesan of trashy builders. At least Maharashtra8217;s Congress chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, tried before summons from 10, Janpath stopped his perfectly logical plans to clear Mumbai8217;s slums. Sheila Dikshit, kept ignominiously waiting by the Congress high command to be named chief minister after she won Delhi a second time, must have won brownie points now for so completely failing to distinguish between right and wrong.

So, let us not hear any more about plans to make Delhi a world-class metropolis. Let us instead wonder whether those who awarded the Commonwealth Games to Delhi are worried about a misjudgment. Let us all agree that if you have the money and the moral malleability to bribe enough officials in this corrupt city, you can build just about anything. And let all such constructions be routinely legalised by an ever-amended Master Plan. But let us demolish at least one thing in Delhi8212;the belief it has a modern, efficient chief minister.