On The spot
Tavleen Singh
At the time I write this it is still not certain whether Arvind Kejriwal will become chief minister of Delhi but I write it in the hope that he does. I have grave misgivings about his party’s economic policies and his own high moral tone makes me cringe but I am ready to put these things aside because initial signs indicate that he is ready to bring real change to the idea of governance and political power. If the Congress Party does not withdraw support before he becomes chief minister he plans to end the VIP culture that is the bane of ordinary citizens of Delhi and that is emulated across the country. If he succeeds only in achieving this one goal he will have transformed the political atmosphere in a city that has been ruined because of the false premise that politicians and high officials are entitled to live in privileged enclaves and by their own set of rules.
So us ordinary citizens often find ourselves stuck in Delhi traffic jams for hours because whole roads have been closed down for ‘VIP movement’. Only when the VIP’s cavalcade of cars screeches by with its red beacons and shrill sirens are mere mortals allowed to move and by then, as happened not long ago, a sick or injured person may have died from not having got to the hospital in time.
It was the Prime Minister’s cavalcade that caused this to happen and immediately afterwards there were promises made that it would never be allowed to happen again but it does happen somewhere in Delhi every day. This is supposedly on account of VIP security but the truth is that most politicians do not need this kind of security but demand it anyway because personal bodyguards and cars with red lights are status symbols in this very status-conscious city. Just as living in Lutyens’ Delhi is and if Kejriwal sticks to his stated resolve to refuse a government house then he could perhaps go one step further and order all his newly elected MLAs to do the same. This would free up vast tracts of very expensive land that could be much better used.
Delhi’s housing problems are not as acute as Mumbai, where half the population lives in slums, but affordable housing is a huge problem and would not be if the whole of Lutyens’ Delhi were not reserved for politicians and bureaucrats. They live in vast bungalows whose market value runs into hundreds of crore rupees and this makes them even more acutely aware of their supposed VIP status. One reason why politicians like to get their children into politics is to hang on to the government accommodation they acquire in a part of the city that is so expensive that the only private citizens who can afford to live here are billionaires. In no other democratic country do taxpayers pay for elected representatives and officials to live in such style but the practice continues in India because all political parties have so far had the same attitude towards privileges and VIP culture.
If Kejriwal sticks to his resolve to live in his own house his ministers will have no choice but to do the same and this will help them better understand the ordinary, everyday problems that the ‘aam aadmi’ faces. Where I live, for instance, on the edge of Delhi near Dwarka there is a flyover that has remained under construction for the past three years. The other roads that lead to my house are in such bad shape that they collapse if it rains too hard. I have tried on more than one occasion to complain to my local MLA about this problem and his response has been to tell me that the road does not come under him but in another constituency. When I complained to the MLA he pointed me towards this gentleman told me coldly that he was not responsible for the condition of roads. One way or another the roads near my home remain in terrible shape and nobody is prepared to do anything about this. Just as nobody owns responsibility for clearing garbage or cleaning the clogged drains in the urban village in which I live.
If the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lives by the values it espouses then Delhi could become a model of governance for the rest of the country. In order for this to happen the first thing that needs to be done is for AAP’s representatives to continue living among the ordinary people who voted for them in the hope that they would really be able to change things.
Sheila Dixit acquired a reputation for being a very good chief minister mostly because compared to other Indian cities Delhi has visibly improved in the past fifteen years. There is a new airport, a wonderful new metro and shining malls in fancy new residential areas. But, in between these islands of excellence lie vast expanses of the city that continue to have the most primitive civic standards. People live in homes made of corrugated sheets and plywood in squalid living conditions. If anything has changed in the lives of these people it is that standards have dropped. In the days when Delhi was more an overgrown village than a real city the ‘aam aadmi’ may not have lived in less squalor but he certainly had cleaner air to breathe and his children had open spaces to play in. One reason why living standards have not improved for the vast majority of ordinary citizens in Delhi is that the two political parties that have taken turns to rule this city share a taste for VIP culture and VIP privileges. This makes them oblivious to the needs of the ‘aam aadmi’.
If Citizen Kejriwal is serious about eschewing VIP privileges he could be doing much greater service to India than he would do through passing his janlokpal bill. Corruption is only part of the problem. It is definitely not the only reason why ordinary people are denied basic services that in most countries are taken for granted. Corruption is not the reason why the citizens of Delhi do not have access to clean water and reliable electricity. Corruption is not the reason why garbage remains uncollected and roads remain un-built. It is bad governance and contempt for the ‘aam aadmi’ that are the real reasons for these things. It is these things that really need to change.
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