Opinion Rainbow cities

For a while now,city squares and streets,especially in Delhi,have been the epicentre of growing upsurges. What began as middle-class protest for justice for Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo,and later against corruption and rape,has grown more amorphous. It remains predominantly middle class but has drawn in some of the urban working class. The AAP has taken it further,enlisting support of a cross-section of voters. It has a large support base in JJ clusters,and in resettlement and unauthorised colonies. In the process,a complex and unruly politics is developing,where the city street channels the anger of a diverse citizenry — students,shopkeepers,white-collar professionals,teachers,along with migrant workers,labourers,domestic workers,auto drivers and others who are powerless. Each is stepping out on the street,as an individual citizen,outside any political affiliation,ideology or common interest. This crowd speaks in disparate voices,yet the urban street allows for a loose collectivisation,weaving a narrative of anger.

This is hardly surprising. At one level,megacities and their governance have been going through dramatic transformations. Over the last decade,public services provided by the state,such as water,electricity,sanitation,roads and infrastructure,have been outsourced. In Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore,escalating electricity bills and faulty meters,water privatisation and unaccountable toll fee on highways have triggered sporadic outbursts where neither the middle class nor the poor have known who to hold accountable — the public body or the private player.

For a while now,megacities have also been projected as dazzling world cities,the hub of “growth”. They have attracted a large number of people,including migrant workers,students and professional migrants. Yet the cities have simultaneously become inaccessible — unaffordable,unsafe,offering fewer prospects. Community bonds are loose and survival an individual affair. These urban centres have,literally and figuratively,been evicting the poor from the city,often with the support of the middle class. As a consequence,the urban poor live further away from their jobs,places of study and health services,with few cheap and safe options to move around in the city. At the same time,the growing cost of living in the city has also affected a section of the middle class. But the state has become unreachable,governing the megacities at an arm’s length from the people. It is almost as if the dispersed hardships of the megacity have found an anchor in the street. The voice on the street is at once individual and common.

Television and social media have enabled this assemblage on the urban street,especially since megacities have been at the heart of the ICT revolution. Middle class protests there have been beamed on television 24 X 7,and become spectacles. Emotional narration and affect have been used to draw in participation. Aided by social media and mobile technologies,these protests have gone viral,spread to other cities and small towns,and set off derivative protests. Mainstream and social media have not just played a significant role,they have been the very tool to bring about the assemblage,to enable the revolt of the citizen or the aam admi,crafting a space for a new politics and indeed for new political formations.

Not surprisingly,then,the electoral win of the AAP in Delhi has resonated in other megacities,and smaller urban settings,bringing in a new rush of members and volunteers. How the AAP wades through the murky reality of Indian politics is yet to be seen. But its biggest challenge will be how it navigates the unruliness of the city street — working with the collective of conflicting projects — from the middle classes in Greater Kailash,to the migrant worker in the JJ colony,from young students in Delhi University,to khap panchayat members,from the leftwing AISA activist to the Narendra Modi supporter. Also significant would be how this new urban politics,now spearheaded by the AAP,relates to the vast rural hinterland and its many mutinies. Perhaps uncertainty is the word that best describes the scenario.

The writer is executive director,Centre for Democracy and Social Action,and co-convenor of Wada Na Todo Abhiyan

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