Editorial: Urban chaos, civic silence

• Bengaluru has its share of problems, which are common to other rapidly growing Indian cities and the four burgeoning metropolitan cities. Given its importance to the Indian economy due to the flourishing technology sector and its entitled, upwardly mobile, aspirational middle and upper middle class, there is a lot of whining and complaining on social media, which in turn gets amplified by the mainstream media. The recent squabble between some industry leaders and Karnataka’s political leadership over the poor infrastructure in India’s own Silicon Valley would have been just another storm in the social media teacup, but it spun out of control. The billionaire entrepreneur and Biocon’s head honcho had ruffled the feathers of political bosses and subsequently had to make overtures to soothe nerves. She had every right as a citizen to question the government, hold them accountable, and seek solutions. That she did it through social media could be construed as a biased and partisan move to target a non-BJP government, while mollycoddling BJP governments in other states with equally bad urban infrastructure. This was pointed out by netizens who dug out her old tweets to highlight what they called her “hypocrisy”.

Bengaluru’s litany woes are not unique to it, and every other city suffers from them at varying degrees. Its trials and tribulations include road traffic problems, especially snarl-ups or traffic congestion, even on major arterial roads, which are pot hole-riddled, and water and sanitation, housing shortage, environmental degradation, etc. Again, like other cities, the once “garden city and pensioners’ paradise, owes its problems to unplanned expansion, development, and growth. For cities like Bengaluru, a rapid and unanticipated increase in population, both in speed and scale, due to sudden waves of migration of both low-income and higher-income migrants, can upset even visionary master plans. Due to growing demand for and appreciation of real estate property, individual houses with open spaces make way to multistorey apartment complexes, which overwhelm the designed capacity of roads, water, and sewage lines, recreational spaces, and other public services in the neighbourhood. Corruption and outdated rules enable the mushrooming of informal and unplanned settlements, which exacerbate the strain on essential services.

Secondly, the poor quality of roads and other infrastructure is due to rampant corruption involving contractors, officials, and political leaders across the spectrum. Corruption exists in advanced Western countries, too, and yet they have excellent, world-class infrastructure. By repeatedly claiming that there is no big-ticket corruption, the BJP government has neutralised anti-corruption voices and movements in general and especially those fighting “retail” corruption at the grassroots level. There is also fear of persecution by the government and its supporters. By controlling the media and its narratives, the BJP has turned the fourth estate into toothless watchdogs. Instead of exposing corruption at all levels of the government, these compromised media organisations are unleashed only against their opponents.

Successive governments have failed in cleaning the Augean stables, as that would require systemic and socio-cultural changes. Substantial improvement is possible if municipal governments are strengthened and empowered, and a range of professional capacities from engineering and project management to socio-economic perspectives are put in place. Without an open and free democratic space, effective civil society participation and oversight are not possible. Cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are trying and achieving modest results, while cities like Gurgaon continue to be dysfunctional due to a governance deficit.