Politicians are elected to govern so governance should be more important than politics. When politics is more important, bad things happen. At about the time that the Prime Minister was telling an audience in a foreign country that India aimed to become a fully developed country by 2047, Delhi saw the first big rain of this monsoon season. As it happens every year, streets became waterways, and newly built underpasses became jammed with vehicles so a journey that usually takes me forty minutes took two hours because of being stuck in a traffic jam in a new underpass. Gurugram, that shining, smart city of the future, came to a watery standstill. This happens every year. Just like every year when winter comes, the air in northern cities becomes unbreathable.
When Narendra Modi became prime minister for the first time a decade ago, he promised change and development. Parivartan and Vikas. To be fair there are areas in which he has truly brought change, but he appears not to have noticed that unless governance improves dramatically, he will have to abandon his dream of seeing India as a fully developed country. If there has been improvement in governance in BJP-governed states it is so minimal as to be meaningless. Everyone has their theories about why India continues to be so badly governed, especially at the municipal and village level, and in my usual humble way, I would like to submit my theory today. Governance has remained abysmal because political priorities have been more important.
A fine example came last week from Maharashtra in the state’s new Special Public Security law. It was passed in the assembly by a voice vote. The Chief Minister said proudly that the purpose of it was to control ‘urban Maoism.’ In his view extreme left-wing organisations have moved from rural parts to cities like Mumbai and are ‘trying to brainwash the youth of urban areas and make them stand up against the democratic system’. Has nobody told him that this is a bad law because anyone spouting leftist ideas could be jailed for his views? Zohran Mamdani would be disqualified if he tried to stand in an Indian election.
The law is misguided, anti-democratic and dangerous. Another political move that falls in that very same category is the decision by the Delhi government to close meat shops that exist along the route of the Kanwar Yatra. Liquor shops could well be next because there are many ‘devout Hindus’ who object belligerently to people drinking alcohol. This kind of arbitrary ban affects the livelihood of thousands of people. But this is not taken into consideration when politicians decide that they have the right to ordain what we should eat and drink. There has been too much interference in our eating habits of late. Instead, what we desperately need are political leaders who remember that they were elected primarily to govern.
Honest citizens who pay their taxes and voters who voted them to high office expect in return that they should govern efficiently and honestly. If there had been governance, we would not have seen Delhi flooded and disabled as we did last week. The monsoon is not something that comes by surprise. It is a season that comes at the same time every year and every year, as long as I can remember, I have seen the capital of our great nation reduced to misery and mire. If there was good governance, drains would be cleaned on time and precautions taken in areas that flood by the evening of the first heavy rain.
If there was governance, we would have by now put in place modern methods of clearing waste. Instead of building landfills that have across India become garbage mountains, we would have built systems to use waste as fuel. We would have at least ensured by now that people did not dump garbage on street corners and sometimes in front of neighbours’ houses. If Delhi has not been able to put these systems in place, you can imagine what our small towns look like. As someone who likes road trips, I travel a lot and find everywhere that our dear Bharat Mata has been turned into a gargantuan slum. If we had political leaders who cared more about governance than politics, this would never have happened.
All that our politicians seem to care about is their own political future. They believe that governance is never an election issue for their voters. So, they concentrate their energies on stirring up hatred between communities and ensuring that the divisions they create will help them win the next election. Personally, I am sick and tired of hearing about how Indians lack ‘civic sense’. I have been hearing this said since I was a child and the people who say it seem not to know that it is the job of municipal officials to ensure that our streets and bazaars are clean.
Delhi is the city I know best and can confirm that municipal officials here are a special breed of predators who prey upon citizens by using convoluted regulations that do not prevent slums but can drive an honest taxpayer insane. A cynical solution is to teach them how to make money out of doing something good for the city instead of preventing good things from happening. Necessary because unless municipal governance improves, there is really no hope.
