The day after

Trauma has revisited Mumbai,as three bombs tore through crowded parts of the city. What happened afterwards was familiar,as the city,under the glare of national attention,picked itself up immediately and citizens tried their best to cope and be of assistance. Mumbai is a city that always manages. Distanced from the devastation,one can only express compassion and solidarity for this city that so often has been the site for both terrible violence and the victim of administrative abdication.

The dignity with which Mumbaikars offered assistance in the aftermath of the blasts put in sharp profile the administrative failures that have dashed the citys promise. It is not Mumbais fabled openness that makes it vulnerable,but the way it has been systematically let down by the state,by those who are supposed to protect it and facilitate its functioning. The 26/11 attack revealed the lack of cohesion in Mumbais police and that situation has only been exacerbated by many layers of authority in the city and state police,several security and intelligence nodes that compete rather than cooperate with each other. And this is a reflection of Mumbais official culture the gravy-train municipal arena is fought over by the Shiv Sena and the Congress-led coalition,but the city is more dilapidated than ever,and increasingly unequal to the task of hosting the dreams and aspirations of its residents. These fissures can be observed at every level,right up to the highest levels of state government. The home ministry has been handed back to the NCPs R.R. Patil,after he was removed following 26/11. It is,of course,difficult to identify one particular factor that may have allowed this attack to happen but there is no escaping the larger political reality of a city that has been abandoned,that has no easy way of wresting accountability from its administration.

Mumbai has been thoroughly bypassed by politics the citys real concerns do not factor into the state or national electoral calculus. The levels of sleaze,corruption and state collusion are legend. Instead of the real crises in employment,infrastructure,housing and other fronts,the only issues that resound clearly in Mumbais politics are emotive questions of identity. No political formation has spelt out a liberal alternative to the Sena-led politics of grievance,because the current dynamics suit them fine,and save them the bother of improving governance. That Mumbai holds together in this administrative void is the real marvel.