Urban Musings Dr. Manvendra Deswal

A brief take on how the ties between ruling and business families in the Indian subcontinent have traversed times.

These are harrowing times for Indian Middle Class. Twitter is trying very hard to locate itself in the cross hairs of the Government and get itself banned. Their latest intransigence is showing truncated map of India wherein J&K is shown as a separate nation! It is no wonder that of all the 21st century platforms, Twitter was a proud Indian adoption - after Sonia Gandhi of course. Having been denied any opportunity to read and write for centuries, expressing stereotypes and/or choicest abuses in 280 words was nothing short of Biblical ‘Manna’. Inflicting opinions had never been easier - and cheaper! This, after Indians have comprehensively tweaked the objective of every available social media platform and used them unabashedly for dating, snooping, bitching, communalizing, marketing, motivating, brandishing and scaring (hardly an exhaustive list). Even the creators of these platforms couldn’t have been so ingenious. This episode narrates the likely adverse impact on ruling political class due to current callousness of Twitter India.

If politics is war by other means, populist economics is its very lethal weapon. Like all weapons, however, if not used selectively, it can not only be self-damaging but also become predictable and blunt. Throughout history, economic well-being of subjects has been synonymous with longevity of empires, turning them expansionist in search of greater revenue base. Replacement of empires by nations along with advent of industrial revolution accentuated the exploitation of third world countries in name of colonization.

As capitalism went through a trough, economic revivalism emerged as a dominant electoral theme over the last decade. While Germany and France have turned towards socialism, US opted for a blue blooded capitalist who vowed to make them great ‘again’ through aggressive protectionism.

Despite having proven right wing Hindu credentials, Narendra Modi fought and won the 2014 elections on the theme of economic development and revivalism (Vikas). Direct and time bound electoral promises delivered through his masterful oratory in mega orchestrated rallies and relentless advertising campaigns in the run up to 2014 General Elections presented him as a Renaissance man. Modi’s key electoral pitch was deliverance from corruption and crony capitalism, wave of which had shocked the country.

A restive population (mostly youth) subjected to decades of substandard quality of life finds itself globally interconnected in this digital world and wants instant results. Modi’s aggressive electoral pitch – 2 crore jobs per year and 15 lacs in every citizen’s accounts, among others only ignited their latent emotions. His credible image as a tireless administrator during Gujarat stint convinced people of this incredulous possibility. Since then, Amit Shah has termed these as electoral ‘jumla’ and Nitin Gadakari ascribed them as promises made by a desperate party unconvinced of its win. Modi, himself, when questioned about job creation in 2018, equated selling of ‘pakoras’ as meaningful employment.

Never before has the country been so divided on economic lines – while some blame demonetization and hasty implementation of GST for this crisis and corruption investigations as mere distractions, others are convinced that these are initial rocky patches that will pave the way for a ‘New ($5 trillion) India’. Ministers themselves are trying to defend the situation by justifying this as a cyclical dip across sectors and need to ‘look beyond mathematics’ like Einstein.

Ever since its launch by PM Modi on June 25, 2014, Indian Smart City Mission (SCM) has been subjected to criticism from multiple quarters. Though pointing out deficiencies in the Govt. scheme is not a new phenomenon in India and the jury is still out on the impact and success of this ambitious program, some of the adverse point are misplaced and indicates universal pessimism prevailing in the society. This piece is an attempt to address these and bring out what is mission is “Not” about.

All 100 cities participated in the competition, out of which 60 have been selected in 3 rounds (including a “Fast Track” round). PM’s own constituency Varanasi ranked 94 after round I of the competition. Nellore constituency of Union Minister for Urban Development, Venkaiah Naidu is not even make it to the list of 100 cities. Hence any accusations of political favoritism are misplaced and unsubstantiated.

The fact that the entire Mission is based on the Bottom-Up approach, it is eventually for the citizens of the cities to decide the area they want to develop. Typically, most of the cities have gone for redevelopment or retrofitting of the most congested and visited areas for upgradation.

One needs to appreciate that Indian cities are run by career bureaucrats - IAS officers, with no dedicated municipal cadre to support. Catering to the entire (and increasing ambitious & educated) city population is not an easy task. Capacity is a huge gap that long needs to be addressed. One of the unfulfilled mandate of the 74th CAA is citizen empowerment and those mission has taken the whole concept of citizen engagement to an altogether revolutionary level. If successful, the newly constituted SPV model is expected to be replicated across the city.

Indian Cities face historical disadvantages that are sought to be addressed by the ambitious Smart Cities Mission. 

Typically, this ambitious Government program would affect approximately 2-4% area of any given city, the proposed Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in these proposed “Smart” Cities has been accorded full powers to implement, monitor and audit the identified urban projects.

A characteristic feature of Indian cities has been ‘Sovereignty Trap’. Consequently, even when certain functions have been expressly delegated to the municipalities, State Governments often intrude into their domain through parallel legislations and/or executive decisions to operate in same functional area.

While the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) did attempt to address these concerns by allotting greater administrative and financial power to the cities, a lot remains to be done in terms of implementation. Most importantly, cities have not been encouraged to address the wider issues pertaining to human development like primary health care, nutrition, primary education and social services among others.

It is skeptical if the Mission will address the challenges that have come to identify the characteristics of Indian urbanization milieu.