SCENE 1. Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) near Kashmiri Gate, Delhi: I have come to meet Sanjeev Sahai, my former colleague in the PMO who is now CEO of the newly created Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd (DIMTS), a novel joint venture between the Delhi government and Infrastructure Development Finance Company. Sahai, one of the brightest and most socially committed young IAS officers, is a staunch votary of public transport. If Delhi’s abysmal city bus service is now slowly improving with the introduction of better buses and construction of bus rapid transport (BRT) corridors, much of the credit should go to DIMTS. The national Capital is certainly getting better for its people in some respects. However, so much more still remains the same or, sadly, is getting worse. The congestion, chaos and dirt in and around the badly maintained ISBT, where multitudes of poor passengers can be seen sitting or sleeping on the floor (a common sight at most bus and railway stations in India), make me remark that the contrast between the recent swanky makeover of Delhi’s airport and the shabby condition of the city’s main bus terminus could not have been starker. Sahai agrees and adds, “This is how we disenfranchise the poor in India.”

SCENE 2. Ward no. 12, K.E.M. Hospital, Mumbai: I have come to see Shakti, a young and talented boy from Manipur, who now lives in Mumbai as an activist of My Home India, a voluntary organisation that works with students and professionals from the North-East, striving to strengthen the emotional bond between them and the cities (like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore) where they live. Shakti, who suddenly developed acute malaria, was brought to the hospital by Sunil Deodhar, a dynamic social activist who founded My Home India after working as an RSS pracharak in the North-East for 12 years. As one who became an activist of this organisation recently, I go to see Shakti. He’s in a bad shape but Sunil and I are relieved when the doctors say he’ll improve. However, what hits my eye is the sight, a common one in most public hospitals, of scores of patients lying on the floor for lack of beds. K.E.M. is no doubt a highly reputed public hospital with a proud record of service to the city. Yet, such is the alarming gap between the need and capacity of public health services in India’s commercial capital that here too one can see how the poor are being disenfranchised.

... contd.