Having grow up in Mumbai city in late 80-90’s one remembers Mumbai to have fantastic transport system and civic amenities. We would enjoy traveling in local trains, BEST buses and that’s what middle class in Mumbai did. In late 90’s the BJP Shiv Sena govt began constructing some 30+ flyovers in anticipation of traffic congestion. Cut to 2014, Now no self-respecting person would like to travel in a local train in peak hours for the sheer indignity of being packed up like food grains.10 minutes on roads in Mumbai and you know, we are not even close to Delhi standards of road- long shot shanghai. The daily traffic congestions due & badly filled potholes, cause long bottlenecks. You could once enjoy your swim at the Gorai beach, no more the sewage system now pukes out untreated shit( literally) into the sea coast of Mumbai. No wonder Mumbai perhaps offers its citizen the worst quality of life.
Why so badly managed amenities for Mumbai, we really see a lot of people wonder…. Here I analyze some not so obvious hypothesis for it.
Mumbai is always cheered for its resilience to bounce back after a calamity, its citizens helping each other to get over the calamity, the strong work ethic & community spirit, coming out together, more stronger than fear to personal safety. 26/11 strike on CST and Taj, targeted the elite of Mumbai-here was the financial capital of India under direct siege. With Taj still under siege, on 27th Nov a Parsi business man not far from where Kasab was arrested previous night, located at pedder road, opened his small shop, so did a catholic mechanic in Ville Parle, not to earn some money, but to ensure that the terrorist fail in their purpose to create terror. When the train bombs blew innocent commuters, the juggiwala nr the tracks took taxi's to ferry the injured to hospitals before the police could arrive.I haven’t heard of ordinary citizens doing such things with no organization around them.
In this AAP led zeitgeist in urban India, Chetan Bhagat in his article "Manage the nation, but don't try to play king " says correctly that Urban Indian’s are aware, smart & Privileged to have better education & exposure, he believes, as do many, that they are entitled for better governance. He extrapolates further that this behavior of the Middle class is despised by the congress & the voters will banish them to opposition for this folly. Nothing could be further from truth.
Read on, before sticking your neck out.
26/11 attack shook Mumbai, so I foolishly ( in hind sight) believed as Chetan does now in his article, that the middle class will defeat the incumbent government, with election just 5 months forward. The old home minister was reinstated and the central government never took any responsibility of containing the strike. Mumbai did not receive any justice. And the Congress swept back to parliament across Mumbai Again!!!
How?
What drives Mumbai folks to vacation- A long weekend? The Lok sabha voting was scheduled on Thursday 30th April 2009, Friday 1st May is holiday for Maharashtra day a weekend of 4 days ( I predict this will happen again in 2014) most people chose to head outside for a mini vacation with schools and colleges off in summer time.( plz suggest any other theory for low turn out) South Mumbai reported 40% voting.
Resilient Mumbai some say? We agree that It also had to do some extent on the MNS splitting with Shiv sena. Across Mumbai the voting percentage was abysmally low.The very people who stood by the massacre chose not to vote or cared more for their holiday. Considering the fact that around 50% of Mumbai are urban poor (Who vote religiously) Who was the culprit? – Of course the middle class residents of Mumbai who just took the bait. If one sees the actual margin of victory as a percentage of total electorate you see it ranged from 0.2% (2833 votes) to 10% with highest margin of victory for areas with lowest polling percentage. Attached is the table.
So this demonstrates how much at least the Mumbai Middle class took to voting to vent out their anger. The ruling government easily manipulated a terror struck and supposedly angry Mumbai. Now if you are such a lethargic lot of voters, who don’t come out to vote- what’s the incentive for a political system to develop better roads and amenities for you? If as a politician, you fail in your duties ( which was mature handling of attacks, clear leadership) still no one is penalized, who do you think will rise against politicians, who continue their benign neglect of Mumbai?
One can think the youths will change that- May be, but there are caveats, lets theorize further.
At office, I lunch almost daily with 8 youths working in their first job, My conversation centers around governance, politics and the general direction of the nation. All, Crib about Mumbai & its pathetic infrastructure; It is not livable, the government here does not care is a common foregone conclusion and all tend to agree. All 8 of them are not from Mumbai, 6 are north Indians, 1 Gujarati and another is a local Maharashtrain. For most North Indian immigrant in city- in north India- Corruption is a accepted norm of social behavior, it is the same in Mumbai, for Gujarati- Modi remains to be the benchmark- Mumbai has no leaders. The local Maharashtra says the immigrant have stretched the city resources too far.
One fine after noon when the canteen lunch was still hot and no one was cursing Mumbai , I asked the a simple question- Have you ever voted- the prompt answer yes, but no not here in Mumbai, my name is not on the voting list here, Ditto with the all 8 immigrants to the city. I was the lone registered voter of Mumbai on the table of 8, most of them were staying in the city for last 4-6 years. My MBA class mates in Gurgaon, went back home to vote for the elections, they are not in Delhi’s voting list - ditto to so many of other people in my social circle, Even the immigrant taxi wala at Mumbai airport voted back home in Jaunpur. Do a survey. Check this out yourself.
As per a report in economic times the cities of India have 30- 35% immigrants. if we add 10% to the total electorate population(Which than adds up near to census population of Mumbai), We have a voting percentage of 30% for Mumbai- A city which was attacked repeatedly responds with 30% voting, apathetic; they are towards their own city right? Any other plausible explanations? How do you think they will respond to benign influence of corruption? Even if we argue to say that voting percentage does not reflect the interest of its citizen towards it cities, how can we ever argue that the immigrants need not contribute towards the democratic decision making ? after all aren’t all major cities made of immigrants?
Min 10% of Mumbai is not registered to Vote yet eligible, 50% of Mumbai is urban poor (the office peon, the sales man in mall, your driver, cab wala, your maid & the slum dwellers seeking a SRA) and the remaining 40 % are Middle class. BUT Effectively only 36% vote. Mind you, the votingdiscipline in Urban poor household is adhered to. So who did not vote? Middle class of course !! If you are the politician - Who do you have to win over, to win the election? What margin of victory you require? (refer table) Any guesses what would a smart politician do? Invoke the local man as many Immigrants don’t vote? and the crorepati flat owner will prefer a vacation to a vote? Why bother to target him? Why improve roads, cater to the working class or the largest tax payers, when it does not bring in the votes for congress.
Why will the BMC bother, if very few middle class men go out to vote for BMC elections?.Now look at the MNS strategy of evoking the local Man? Or the congress actions of favoring the builders and Slum dwellers, creating a urban planning Disaster. Why give civic infrastructure? who cares? Does it make sense on the urban infrastructure? You can punch holes in these theories, but no matter what, middle class India was not the vote back the politician needs to cater for. Chetan dig deeper.
If Middle class in Mumbai is too buzy in it’s life, to look deeper, to take effort to be on voting list, to have atleast an opinion about your communities future. Extrapolating that Urban India will punish Congress is way off the mark. Also all the Journalists.. should stop cribbing about Mumbai Civic infrastructure. Mumbai deserve this apathy and the “AAP” electing Delhi junta deserves better.
Why so badly managed amenities for Mumbai, we really see a lot of people wonder…. Here I analyze some not so obvious hypothesis for it.
Mumbai is always cheered for its resilience to bounce back after a calamity, its citizens helping each other to get over the calamity, the strong work ethic & community spirit, coming out together, more stronger than fear to personal safety. 26/11 strike on CST and Taj, targeted the elite of Mumbai-here was the financial capital of India under direct siege. With Taj still under siege, on 27th Nov a Parsi business man not far from where Kasab was arrested previous night, located at pedder road, opened his small shop, so did a catholic mechanic in Ville Parle, not to earn some money, but to ensure that the terrorist fail in their purpose to create terror. When the train bombs blew innocent commuters, the juggiwala nr the tracks took taxi's to ferry the injured to hospitals before the police could arrive.I haven’t heard of ordinary citizens doing such things with no organization around them.
In this AAP led zeitgeist in urban India, Chetan Bhagat in his article "Manage the nation, but don't try to play king " says correctly that Urban Indian’s are aware, smart & Privileged to have better education & exposure, he believes, as do many, that they are entitled for better governance. He extrapolates further that this behavior of the Middle class is despised by the congress & the voters will banish them to opposition for this folly. Nothing could be further from truth.
Read on, before sticking your neck out.
26/11 attack shook Mumbai, so I foolishly ( in hind sight) believed as Chetan does now in his article, that the middle class will defeat the incumbent government, with election just 5 months forward. The old home minister was reinstated and the central government never took any responsibility of containing the strike. Mumbai did not receive any justice. And the Congress swept back to parliament across Mumbai Again!!!
How?
What drives Mumbai folks to vacation- A long weekend? The Lok sabha voting was scheduled on Thursday 30th April 2009, Friday 1st May is holiday for Maharashtra day a weekend of 4 days ( I predict this will happen again in 2014) most people chose to head outside for a mini vacation with schools and colleges off in summer time.( plz suggest any other theory for low turn out) South Mumbai reported 40% voting.
Resilient Mumbai some say? We agree that It also had to do some extent on the MNS splitting with Shiv sena. Across Mumbai the voting percentage was abysmally low.The very people who stood by the massacre chose not to vote or cared more for their holiday. Considering the fact that around 50% of Mumbai are urban poor (Who vote religiously) Who was the culprit? – Of course the middle class residents of Mumbai who just took the bait. If one sees the actual margin of victory as a percentage of total electorate you see it ranged from 0.2% (2833 votes) to 10% with highest margin of victory for areas with lowest polling percentage. Attached is the table.
So this demonstrates how much at least the Mumbai Middle class took to voting to vent out their anger. The ruling government easily manipulated a terror struck and supposedly angry Mumbai. Now if you are such a lethargic lot of voters, who don’t come out to vote- what’s the incentive for a political system to develop better roads and amenities for you? If as a politician, you fail in your duties ( which was mature handling of attacks, clear leadership) still no one is penalized, who do you think will rise against politicians, who continue their benign neglect of Mumbai?
One can think the youths will change that- May be, but there are caveats, lets theorize further.
At office, I lunch almost daily with 8 youths working in their first job, My conversation centers around governance, politics and the general direction of the nation. All, Crib about Mumbai & its pathetic infrastructure; It is not livable, the government here does not care is a common foregone conclusion and all tend to agree. All 8 of them are not from Mumbai, 6 are north Indians, 1 Gujarati and another is a local Maharashtrain. For most North Indian immigrant in city- in north India- Corruption is a accepted norm of social behavior, it is the same in Mumbai, for Gujarati- Modi remains to be the benchmark- Mumbai has no leaders. The local Maharashtra says the immigrant have stretched the city resources too far.
One fine after noon when the canteen lunch was still hot and no one was cursing Mumbai , I asked the a simple question- Have you ever voted- the prompt answer yes, but no not here in Mumbai, my name is not on the voting list here, Ditto with the all 8 immigrants to the city. I was the lone registered voter of Mumbai on the table of 8, most of them were staying in the city for last 4-6 years. My MBA class mates in Gurgaon, went back home to vote for the elections, they are not in Delhi’s voting list - ditto to so many of other people in my social circle, Even the immigrant taxi wala at Mumbai airport voted back home in Jaunpur. Do a survey. Check this out yourself.
As per a report in economic times the cities of India have 30- 35% immigrants. if we add 10% to the total electorate population(Which than adds up near to census population of Mumbai), We have a voting percentage of 30% for Mumbai- A city which was attacked repeatedly responds with 30% voting, apathetic; they are towards their own city right? Any other plausible explanations? How do you think they will respond to benign influence of corruption? Even if we argue to say that voting percentage does not reflect the interest of its citizen towards it cities, how can we ever argue that the immigrants need not contribute towards the democratic decision making ? after all aren’t all major cities made of immigrants?
Min 10% of Mumbai is not registered to Vote yet eligible, 50% of Mumbai is urban poor (the office peon, the sales man in mall, your driver, cab wala, your maid & the slum dwellers seeking a SRA) and the remaining 40 % are Middle class. BUT Effectively only 36% vote. Mind you, the votingdiscipline in Urban poor household is adhered to. So who did not vote? Middle class of course !! If you are the politician - Who do you have to win over, to win the election? What margin of victory you require? (refer table) Any guesses what would a smart politician do? Invoke the local man as many Immigrants don’t vote? and the crorepati flat owner will prefer a vacation to a vote? Why bother to target him? Why improve roads, cater to the working class or the largest tax payers, when it does not bring in the votes for congress.
Why will the BMC bother, if very few middle class men go out to vote for BMC elections?.Now look at the MNS strategy of evoking the local Man? Or the congress actions of favoring the builders and Slum dwellers, creating a urban planning Disaster. Why give civic infrastructure? who cares? Does it make sense on the urban infrastructure? You can punch holes in these theories, but no matter what, middle class India was not the vote back the politician needs to cater for. Chetan dig deeper.
If Middle class in Mumbai is too buzy in it’s life, to look deeper, to take effort to be on voting list, to have atleast an opinion about your communities future. Extrapolating that Urban India will punish Congress is way off the mark. Also all the Journalists.. should stop cribbing about Mumbai Civic infrastructure. Mumbai deserve this apathy and the “AAP” electing Delhi junta deserves better.
