Opinion Mumbai’s tragedy

From the time I first came to live in Mumbai (it was still Bombay then),I have observed two things. Everything that is good in this city comes from the initiative of ordinary people and everything that is bad comes from officialdom. It is probably the incredible force of private enterprise in this city that outsiders see as the ‘spirit’ of Mumbai. From street children and pavement sellers of fruit and flowers to corporate czars and Bollywood stars,everyone in Mumbai survives by their wits. In Delhi,where I have spent most of my life,the opposite is true. Almost everyone waits for a government job or some sop of similar kind. Over the years,what I have grown to love most about Mumbai is the stubborn courage and ferocious enterprise of its ordinary citizens.

What I have come to despise is the manner in which this city is governed. Or perhaps what I should say is the manner in which it is not governed. It is probably the only metropolis in the world that does not have its own elected government. After last week’s bombs,you may have noticed that the Mayor was nowhere to be seen and it was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and other state officials who took responsibility.

In my humble opinion,it is because of this absence of a city government that almost nothing has improved by way of policing since 26/11 three years ago. The police are better equipped. They have armoured cars and heavily armed squads that wander about with Commando written on their uniforms,but what the city needs most is better trained policemen because it is only through ordinary policemen that intelligence gathering will improve. And,if Mumbai had the right to elect its own city government,this would have been realised long ago.

Mumbai has a population that is bigger than that of many countries and yet it does not have its own elected government. This absence is felt not just in policing but in ordinary civic needs. Half the population of Mumbai lives in filthy slums because no government of Maharashtra has felt the urgent need to build low-cost housing. Most of the population of this city relies on water that we buy from tankers. When it comes to electricity,the rich back up supplies with their own generators and the poor steal it with impressive proficiency. If Mumbai has one public service that works so well that it is the city’s lifeline,it is the local trains but this is small comfort when so much else is absent.

So if the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi,who came personally to share in Mumbai’s sorrow,would really like to do something for this city,what they should do is allow the city to govern itself. If this most obvious democratic right is extended to every other large Indian city,it will be a matter of time before we see extraordinary improvements in urban policing and living conditions.

Let this movement for urban renewal begin in Mumbai. It is sickening to see how fat cat politicians,officials and even judges have appropriated fine Adarsh type buildings here without giving anything back to the city. The misuse of public land is scandalous and would not be allowed by a responsible city government. There are ministerial bungalows sitting on land worth hundreds of crores and on Worli Seaface,a vast government dairy farm on land worth thousands of crores.

Sadly,Mumbai’s citizens rarely find time to object to their money being misused constantly. Sadly,they have never found time to demand their most important democratic right: an elected city government. Sadly,the only urban political party that Mumbai has ever thrown up,did no more than change its name.

Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @singh_tavleen