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My Sunday blog
I will not be voting for the Congress this time. And nor I suspect will many middle class people who live in South Delhi give the party their votes. The reason is simple: the BRT corridor, writes Vir Sanghvi.
The late Behram Contractor, the legendary Bombay columnist (as Busybee), used to take a break from writing his daily single-subject column on Saturdays. Instead, he would put down all the many things that had occurred to him in the course of the week without struggling to find something to link them.
We didn’t know it then but in this, as in so many other things, Behram was ahead of his time. The multi-subject Saturday columns he wrote would be instantly recognisable today as blogs: as a man offering his own personal take on people and events.
The more I thought about this week’s column, the more I became convinced that as nothing really interesting had happened, I should abandon the search for A Big Topic. Instead, here’s my own Sunday blog, my self-indulgent listing of all the things that occurred to me this week. As Behram would always say in his Saturday column: it’s all my own work!
The Delhi Election: I have no idea who will win the election in Delhi. Logic suggests that after two terms of Congress rule, it should be the BJP. But some pollsters tell us that the Congress has an edge again. Certainly, there are many reasons to vote for the Congress, among them the image of Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit.
But here’s what I do know: I will not be voting for the Congress this time. And nor I suspect will many middle class people who live in South Delhi give the party their votes. The reason is simple: the BRT corridor. If you don’t live in Delhi, then let me explain. This is a crackpot scheme to build huge bus stops in the middle of the road, to reserve large central lanes for buses and to restrict motorists to a few narrow areas.
The logic is as follows: if buses can travel quickly, then motorists will abandon their cars and travel by bus. So traffic will get better.
Actually it’s got a lot worse. It has got so bad that there are parts of Delhi that I dread visiting because of the jams caused by the BRT. The problem is that many middle class car owners will not travel by bus even if it is quicker.
And so, despite figures quoted by experts, the truth is that the BRT has defaced Delhi’s roads and made traveling a living hell. Everybody says this. The press has run campaigns to this effect. But still the Delhi government refuses to listen. It is human to make a mistake. But unforgivable to refuse to correct it. So, the Congress is not getting my vote. And many, many other people’s votes.
Margaret Alva:
Still on the subject of the Congress and the Assembly elections, what does it say about the party that its leaders now routinely expect tickets for their children? There’s not even any pretence of giving outsiders a chance. And leaders show no shame in lobbying for their sons. From the outside, it is hard to say whether Margaret Alva’s claims about ticket distribution in Karnataka are fair. But two things are clear: One: she had no business going public with her complaints. You can’t be a Congress general secretary and still attack the Congress.
And two: Why does the Blessed Margaret’s heart bleed only for her own son? This display of concern for equitable distribution of tickets would have had some credibility if she was complaining about some party worker. But when she protests on behalf of her son, then it just seems grasping and reeks of self-entitlement.
St Stephen’s College:
I was intrigued by the response to Rahul Gandhi’s statement that the Indian education system does not encourage people to ask questions. Surely, this is entirely true? The whole foundation of our education system rests on the so-called ‘respect for teachers’ which is usually twisted to mean “don’t question what they say”. Our exams test mugging ability and book-learning rather than the capacity to think for one’s self. Where Rahul went wrong was in singling out St Stephen’s, his old college. I’ve no reason to doubt him when he says that he was discouraged from asking questions there. But there is an unwritten rule among Delhi’s governmental, media and professional elites that you simply do not say anything bad about St Stephen’s. Otherwise its old boys and girls will pounce on you and suggest that you have committed blasphemy. This is quite unlike say, Britain, where Oxford and Cambridge are routinely attacked in the media. I wondered how all the outraged Stephenians (as they call themselves) who had condemned Rahul for speaking out felt when they saw TV footage of his visit to the college on Tuesday. It was as though a rock star had visited his fan club. Students panted excitedly, they surrounded Rahul, they sang his praises for the TV cameras and they kept taking his photos with their mobile phones. Outraged by what Rahul had said? Hell, they were thrilled to bits by his very presence! Maybe he let them ask questions.
The Obama Bandwagon:
After our initial delight at Barack Obama’s victory, I now sense a new emotion: a feeling of being left out. We are so excited by Obama that we long somehow to be part of his constituency or, at the very least, to be visible on his windscreen.
The problem is that he has other things to do and India cannot possibly be his top priority. But we are unable to come to terms with this. We try and find India links in his staff; we create controversies about the political beliefs of his Indian-American aides; we play up speculation about a Kashmir envoy and whip ourselves into a lather over whether this constitutes interference in India’s internal affairs; and we worry endlessly about why he didn’t phone Manmohan Singh shortly after winning the election.
Get a grip, people!
He’s their President. Not our’s.
So what’s new?: In the heady days that led up to the no-confidence motion, we were told how much better off we would all be without the Left. It wasn’t just the nuclear deal, the government’s defenders said, it was that whole slew of measures that India so desperately needed had been stalled because of the stupid obstinacy of the Left.
Well, the Left has gone. And Amar Singh, contrary to fears expressed at that time, has been quite happy to play ball with the government. So a majority in parliament should be no problem.
The obvious questions: Where are all these wonderful measures we were promised then? Surely, now’s the time to push through all the things that couldn’t have been passed because of the obstinacy of the Left? Instead: we have not seen one new measure of note. Could it be that the global economic crisis has led to a revision of priorities? Are no new measures planned? Has the government had a change of heart?
I have no idea. But given how much we heard about the terrible things the Left had done and how, it would be smooth-sailing from now on, I think we should be told.
Tough On Terror: Has anyone noticed how the demand for ‘tough laws’ (essentially laws that allow policemen to search, harass or lock up people without evidence) to fight terrorism has been diluted over the last week or so? When the demand was first raised, many liberals reacted cautiously. We recognised the importance of fighting terror but were concerned that these laws might be applied indiscriminately against Muslims — as happened with TADA in the 1990s. But now that we know that many of the terrorists are Hindu fundamentalists — not the jehadis we had thought they were — the Sangh Parivar is less enthusiastic about demanding that the police lock up people indiscriminately.
Take the case of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath who warned that the Bombay police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad “should be prepared to face the consequences” if it ‘dared’ to touch him.Consider now how the BJP would have reacted if a Muslim leader had issued such a threat. He would have been called a traitor and the Sangh Parivar would have asked for his immediate arrest. Now, Rajnath Singh is singing a very different tune.
It’s easy to demand the suspension of other people’s civil liberties. Not so easy when it’s your own freedom at stake. As the BJP has now learnt.
