- Pushed to the Brink, Arvind Kejriwal Takes His Battle to the Streets
In her column for The Wire today, Monobina Gupta said that the tenacity and meticulousness with which the BJP has thwarted the Delhi government’s functioning has made one thing clear: the era of willful use of Article 356 and dismissal of politically adversarial state government may well be over, but the culture of political vendetta is in full bloom.
When Kejriwal decided to transform a people’s movement into an electoral party, he would surely have known the going was going be tough. Especially for a party that came to acquire the reputation of having anarchic overtones. Arguably though, what Kejriwal perhaps did not anticipate was the stubborn and audacious resistance he encountered from a government that once boasted about scripting a new chapter on federal relations, deepening the Centre’s engagement with state governments. Kejriwal may not have had anticipated the hurdles LGs – so far he has dealt with two – would mount to paralyse any kind of functioning of the Delhi government.
But his unconventional methods of protest for a ruling party and a chief minister, considered radical or anarchist by the elite and the well-heeled, could earn him the favourable tag of an ‘outsider within’.
- Toilets are being constructed at a remarkable pace, but it’s not a Prem Katha yet for all sections of the population
Speaking about the Swachh Bharat Mission initiated by Narendra Modi government, Shaon Lahiri in a column for The Times Of India writes that the mission can be considered truly successful only if the construction of toilets leads to substantial improvements in people’s health.
The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) carried out a review last year of existing research studies which showed that there are many reasons people don’t use latrines in India. Fear of a latrine pit filling up, lack of a water connection and poor condition of the toilet are some reasons people still prefer open defecation. Going out in the open is also seen as being more comfortable than a stuffy, airless latrine. In terms of their design, latrines are not fit for use by very young children and older people. There are also some clear gendered preferences at work. Men prefer open defecation, seen as a ‘manly’ activity.
- The Submerged and Emergent Lives of Delhi’s Subhash Park
Highlighting the park’s picturesque history that hangs in a state of suspended animation between bureaucratic paralysis and political anxiety, Aparna Balachandran and Deborah Sutton wrote an insightful column for The Wire. They pointed out that re-purposing of local parks for the commemoration of nationalist history raises questions of whose past and, whose presents, the park should represent.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took over the park in 2012 to construct the Heritage Metro Line that runs through the Old City. While it is hard to imagine the park as possessing a picturesque past, residents of the area and old photos attest that it consisted of pathways, benches, palm and narangi trees prior to its acquisition by the DMRC. These features have disappeared, along with the malishwalas for which Subhash Park was once known. The DMRC has returned the park to the city on the understanding that the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) will restore it. There are no signs that this will happen any time soon except for stacks of paving stone lying across the remaining paths.
- The missing tiers
Critically analysing India’s tryst with municipal governance, Mathew Idiculla wrote a detailed column for The Hindu. He said that it is important to examine concerns in the underlying constitutional design of urban local governments and the politics impeding this Amendment’s operation.
The “implementation failure” narrative tends to focus on how local governments are financially constrained and do not have the administrative capacity to carry out its functions. It is also important to explore how urban local governments are actively disempowered and depoliticised as an institution.
As cities struggle to meet the basic needs of their inhabitants, we must re-examine the existing modes of organising power in urban India. Unlike the 73rd Amendment which provides for three levels of panchayats (village, taluk, and district levels), power in urban areas is concentrated in a single municipal body (whether it is a municipal corporation, municipal council or town panchayat). However, as Indian cities have grown exponentially over the last 25 years, with some crossing the 10 million population mark, we must rethink the present model of urban governance that vests power in a singular municipality.
- The crimes of a few condemn the fate of many
The profound lack of support for Rohingya refugees in India is shameful, says Aakar Patel in his column for The Hindu. He states that the issue here is not about which “side” committed more atrocities. The issue is about people. About civilians. About mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, who have been killed, maimed and brutalised. It is about their rights as human beings.
There have been no attempts to consider alternative measures to distinguish between people who actually pose a threat from people in dire need of protection. The mass expulsion of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar would be an abject dereliction of India’s obligations under international law. In the past, AI India has advocated that the most effective way for the Indian government to address security concerns is to conduct “fair and efficient refugee determination proceedings”.
Even though India is not a party to the Refugee Convention, it has always had a longstanding tradition of providing shelter to those seeking protection. However, in this instance, it seems to be faltering, and it is time we question why.