Bombay First stop misleading the city and the world!

The recent visit of UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Mr. David Miliband had some moments of serious concern. I happened to get invited for a dinner with the Minister and was till then unaware of his trip. On the day after the dinner on the 25th January did I realise the scope of the visit and the various programs that the Minister had participated in. The DNA report caught my fancy http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1076222.

It spoke of the breakfast meeting that the Minister had with Bombay First. The report left me infuriarated. Just the previous evening I was left mildly agitated with the course of discussion between myself, an official of the government of UK and Mr. Narinder Nayar, the Chairman of Bombay First. The discussion revolved around the topic of food processing since the visiting Minister also Food in his portfolio. The British person asked about what ails the system and whether contract farming is followed etc. Mr. Nayar showed his ignorance of the issue by speaking of how India lacks cold storage facilities and sophisticated logistical facilities and 40 percent of food is wasted every year. Neither the other gentleman nor I got any chance to speak much. I tried to put across that these were statistics which were thrown about nearly a decade back or at least till 2000. I used to be reading about these while researching about my economics projects. After that the country has seen enormous change. I did a bit talking of how there has been considerable change with cold storage and processing. Just the example of McDonalds is good about how best practices have been adopted by the rest of the sector.

As is the way with dinner meets soon enough there was a change of partners and we were all speaking to others. I have never liked this particular habit of a lot of Indian’s of trying to gain sympathy from Europeans and Americans by going out of the way to show what all is wrong with the country – even when it is not true like in this case – and was left with a bad taste. This habit is a bit too prevalent I must say in the Independence generation.

Coming to the DNA report of the breakfast meeting. I don’t know who the other participants were but can hazard a guess as to some of them being the same old self obsessed cronies who always hold the mantle of the crumbling, facade of a Think Tank that Bombay First is. I was a Project Officer at Bombay First for two years and have enough understanding of their processing power and ability to understand the city’s problems and participate. It is one of the city’s biggest scandals – much bigger than most of the corruption scams in government – that such an un-meritocratic institution represents itself as the vanguard of Civil Society of Mumbai and is presented before visiting delegations of World Bank and whosoever would drop in from the world.  No doubt the article mentions that at one point the participants were left wondering whether Bombay First was representing Bombay or David Miliband was! This was exactly the feeling I – and many others – would be left with while I was there.

I think it is a matter of grave concern and high time it was looked at with seriousness by everyone. At a time when co-operation and working together is the need of the hour the atmosphere gets tremendously vitiated by this kind of experiences. With all due respect to Mr. Nayar and Bombay First the fact remains that Bombay First does little original thinking and remains far removed from the city of Mumbai. Being geographically close to Mantralaya and sitting on official government meetings has given Bombay First the illusion that it knows best. The mandarins in Mantralaya also have cultivated Bombay First for a good reason.

In all this gaming its only the city’s urban management problems which are suffering. Some get a good ego massage, others have some narrow purpose served and there is hardly any serious thinking and analysis on the city’s issues. It is this fundamental anomaly which needs to be corrected first before we worry ourselves silly with what to do about the issues. We cant fight a battle with a fragmented army which itself is engaged in turf battles.

The management of Bombay First gives me the impression of being from that same conceited breed of Indians which over centuries has betrayed the country. Even most foreigners end up doing more good to this country than these (and those more notorious) sons of our soil. Aided by a a cunning and completely self serving establishment Bombay First has been propped up as a representative of the city at the neglect of more deserving representatives. And all with a deliberate purpose of creating confusion.

The specific issues mentioned in the article as discussed in the round-table were mass transportation, waste management and slums. All issues of which Mr. Nayar has little understanding but one’s on which he will keep speaking till the cows come home. While the rest of the city keeps giving its hand at trying out various creative interventions Mr. Nayar remains fossilised with some few statistics and opinions on Mumbai and India that he held – and maybe which were true then – in 2000–01.

I  feel depressed and demoralised with his self-deprecating and completely shameful manner in which he always will talk about the city’s waste problem and run after foreigners for solutions. It is indeed a scandal that other more knowledgeable people who put their day and night in offering solutions and are silently bringing about a change hardly interact at such forums and a few completely unrepresentative candidates do all the speaking and representation on behalf of the others.

And the ironical and completely embarrassing part is when the foreigners on the other side are more knowledgeable and are left completely confused and uncomfortable by the fact that here is a person who is the Chairman of the city’s ‘premier’ Think Tank and knows little. Same is with Mass transportation on which from what the article speaks Mr. Nayar did a complete foot in the mouth!

The fact remains that for most of the time Mr. Nayar travels in an air-conditioned car from Malabar Hill to Nariman Point and then a couple of meetings and functions of South Mumbai. That certainly is not enough to know enough about mass transportation. In the past few years anyways he has been spending more than half the year in the US and Europe where also I am not sure whether he uses mass transportation. Something of this sort can only happen in a society which is still very unrepresentative and runs on aristocracy.

There was talk about disposing of old cars and bringing in Euro standard compliant cars? Mumbai has been seeing reduced pollution levels since 2000. Disposing of old cars was something discussed in the late 90’s when we still had old Fiats and Maruti 800 roads. Has he missed the great automobile explosion – with newer more compliant cars coming in everyday? The challenge today is not disposing old cars but in being able to gauge the public and political mood towards fiscal disincentives on people getting cars and consequently choking up our roads! Something Bombay First will avoid by a barge pole!

And what about CNG which last year saw its consumption beat that of diesel and petrol in the city. And where ever in the world do cars get talked of as mass transportation in the world. I am not surprised that the Minister looked perplexed. Maybe looking perplexed was also an attempt at getting out at the earliest from the room.

I think the city needs a break from this embarrassment and its time that those who rightly deserve start getting embarrassed.

Through this note I would like to make a request to London First and the UK government to open their eyes, disengae from ceremony and more importantly stop doing damage to Indo-British relationships by engaging in dialogue on important city and urban management matters with just a few individuals and organisations. Being representative is the most fundamental principal for policy making and public discussion.

Who committed 7/7?

This note is about the vandalism by the Shiv Sena carried out on the 7^th of July 2006. I felt very strongly about the event. It was nothing short of terrorism as I saw it – and of the most frivolous kind. There was no enemy nation, no rights violated of those forcibly evicted or a religious enmity.  Every time I see a mention of the 7/11 blasts in the papers I get infuriated with the papers as well as the civil society in general which love fighting invisible enemies alone and shows no inclination for the clear and visible ones.

While this note is about the Sena I do not wish to discuss the Sena here. What really appalled me about 7/7 was how people and the authorities in the city just chickened out from taking any action against the specific people involved in the arson and in fanning emotions on the issue. I used to await any mention around the 7^th of every month for the past six months to see if there would be any mention. I didn’t follow the papers towards the end of December but don’t think anybody carried it as a serious black mark. Now again as 7^th January came about I thought I will express myself.

11/7 train blasts did not obliterate the need for any action on 7/7. It was not an event which should have taken away attention from 7/7 which to my mind was far more serious. What is worse? – a terrorist group (LeT) whose sole stated purpose is to cause death and destruction in India or a political party (Shiv Sena) which claims to be the savior of Hindu’s and the Marathi Manoos and the city, which then at the slightest provocation brings the city to a halt and engages in arson.

I think 11/7 proved to be a good excuse for the cowardly Hindu intelligentsia to avoid confrontation with the devils within. It’s very convenient to make an enemy of people who are thousands of kilometers away and are faceless. And then blame all your ills on them. It’s very difficult to take a tough stand against criminals who stay a block away, whom you can drop by in to express your unhappiness and people who are from your own holy community.

There were buses burnt and life disrupted of a city by the people of those city itself. And ironically by a set of people who force people to believe that they are the only ones who can ensure the city’s best interests.  I had my office in Dadar that time close to the Sena Bhavan and had an important meeting and couldn’t go. The sight of buses being burnt and those hooligans (party members) going about got my blood to boil. Which Hindu’s were these? And which Hindu’s (not mine) interest were they serving?

The bust of Meenatai Thackeray was found splashed with mud on the morning of 7^th July 2006. It was not that the bust was damaged in any manner.  Lets consider the worst scenario – all conjecture. Some enemy of the nation wanting to foster communal disharmony had indeed done the activity (LeT and ISI). Lets also consider that it was a party like Samajwadi which did it. So what? You play into the enemies plans? While the enemy just throws some mud on a bust which does no damage to the country – except to the ego’s of some politicians and false leaders – what do you do? You do the real damage. Damage property and bring to a halt the prime commercial city of the country?

And why should one’s self respect and pride and belief in ideology be so frail as to be affected by some mud. The issue was a trivial one and as my conspiracy theory mind tells me maybe fabricated by their own selves. Shiv Sena has always been wanting in rallying behind issues which make sense. And they were not finding anybody doing something senseless that they could object to. So what is the next best option – create an issue.

And shouldn’t the same people who felt so strongly about 11/7 have done something about 7/7. Terrorism is terrorism in any manner. It is the act of creating terror. Whether by mob mania or with bomb blasts. If you choose to ignore terrorism of one kind over the other you are asking for trouble.

11/7 saw the ATS getting into action. Over the 3 months following the incidence the media was full of stories outlining the chain of events over half the country. Showing raids being conducted and leader after leader and anybody castigating Pakistan and LeT. The State is meant to only hunt out Muslim terrorists. Hindu’s anyways cannot be terrorists. They are the most peaceful, gentlemanly, law abiding, spiritual and honest people the planet ever saw.

Has the ATS been able to find out who burnt the buses at Shivaji Park on 7/7? Who were the members in the mob? For 11/7 we have names and faces coming up on the screen. Why can’t the same be for 7/7? I want to see the face of the persons who burnt those buses and threw stones. We may not punish them but can at least get them on a talk show and understand their viewpoint. We will not have to go to PoK to find these people. Most probably they hang out every evening at Shivaji Park. What good is our intelligence and police? Even a media reporter and concerned citizens could have borne that out by informal enquiries.

Maybe the punishment for 7/7 is very less but if we do not initiate enquiries then the message seems pretty clear that its okay to go out and vent you anger by once in a while going and burning some buses and throwing stones and brining the city to a halt and slice of a few hundred crores from the GDP.

7/7 saw the Home Minister talking tough. He warned of serious action. For the 3-4 days after the incident the whole city was angry. Even the Sena’s face seemed to go red. And then – complete silence? The Sena must have thanked their stars and the indifferent and cowardly city.

Discussions around 11/7 could have maybe taken our full time till the end of July but at least by the 7^th of August we should have realized that there was something equally serious desiring attention.   And what about the media? It’s amazing how no channel, no paper and no magazine chose to question how the saviors of the city keep hurting it whenever given a chance. I waited and waited that sometime, somewhere there will be some noise. Not just protest or a demand to punish the culprits but maybe even a justification or a casual mention. Nothing.

If you were to do a simple search for 7/11 on Mumbai Mirror (which carried a lot of sensational 7/11 stories) you get nearly 70 odd stories. For 7/7 I tried various combinations but gave up trying after the search results yielded nothing. Yes no life was lost on 7/7 and 289 were lost on 11/7.  But does a crime get measured for its severity with other more serious crimes. Was it a coincidence that the two events happened close to each other? Could there be a connection? I am also reminded of 1992-93 when it was Hindu fascists who started a chain of destruction by demolishing Babri Mosque.

Everything is a question mark? We have a convenient civil society also where there is no shortage of people talking good governance as long as the talk centers around improving the SYSTEM. Talking system is a convenient option to having to confront specific instances of complete failure of governance. As if good governance was possible by turning a blind eye to events like 7/7 and the double standards and chicanery that exist all around us.