Arvind Kejriwal weaves mirage of Delhi’s full statehood
By Manish Anand
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has once more re-ignited debate on the issue of full statehood for the national capital. Speaking in the Assembly, Kejriwal asserted that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will once more contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 on the issue of full statehood for Delhi and win all the seven parliamentary constituencies. The wine (full statehood) is certainly old, and elections are proverbial new bottles. But stirring old wine in new bottle sharpens political divide in Delhi.
Even before Sheila Dikshit took control of the Delhi politics, the issue of full statehood was presented to the people by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Delhi Assembly has passed several resolutions in support of the full statehood for the national capital. The chief minister of Delhi has an overhang of being a lesser mortal without the control over land and police.
The population of Delhi must be approaching three crore or may have already gone past it, and true numbers will come out only on the completion of the 2021 Census. On the strength of population, Delhi is bigger than several states in the country despite geographically being a small territory. Thus, Delhi on the principle of a functional democracy may have several reasons in support of gaining the full statehood. That democracy is a rule by the people needs no reiteration.
Democracy makes it incumbent for the authority to be accountable to the people. All organs of the government must be accountable to the people. It may be worth debating who in practice shares the burden of accountability in Delhi.
The resting place of Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat in Central Delhi went under water recently. A few people died of electrocution after touching livewire in waterlogged roads. Parts of Delhi were flooded. The teams of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) had to be pressed in action to de-clog ITO barrage gates. Delhi grabbed the international attention for its pitiable infrastructure, and horrific experiences of the people who had never seen flood in the city. They were told by experts that such floods had come to Delhi several decades ago. This calls for accountability.
A few hours of rains bring Delhi to its knees. Drains are often blamed to have exhausted their capacities several years ago, while they also remain choked. Cleaning drains before the onset of Monsoon rains is the annual task of the municipal bodies. Here, the usual alibi of multiplicity of authority should cease to function, because the AAP now rules in the city as well as the municipal bodies.
The people leaving from Delhi for Sonipat in Haryana and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh are dumb-struck at the sight of the expansive garbage-mountains. Three decades of Delhi being a Union Territory with an Assembly and an elected government are long enough time span to test the will be of the ruling politicians to make themselves accountable to the people. Indeed, the electorate in Delhi doesn’t want their city surrounded by garbage-mountains. Sadly, neither the Delhi government nor the MCD ever owned accountability for abundantly failing in solid waste management. To say that the task is daunting is evidently false, for Indore turned such garbage-mountain into a garden with shopping complex within a few years. Also, the summers bring fire in such garbage-mountains in Delhi, which force the people in the city as well as neighbouring towns of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to inhale toxic gases. That again calls for accountability.
Delhi is a heat trap because of its topography. The green cover in Delhi is also reducing. Delhi needs green lung to absorb dust and carbon emissions. Last year’s report of the Forest Survey of India stated that Delhi had lost almost 0.44 square kms of forest cover since 2019. Also, cutting and felling of trees in the heart of the city with afforestation faraway may not help the cause of the people who battle toxic air each as a part of annual ritual when farmers in the neighbouring Punjab and Haryana set their farms on fire to rid of crop residues quickly. This again calls for accountability.
A school teacher in an auto-rickshaw was dragged to the road following phone-snatchers pulling her out in Saket recently. The audacity of the criminals to rob the people in broad daylight is surely a damning rebuke to the efficacy of the police. Statistics, as revealed in the report of the National Crime Research Bureau, shows the law and order situation in Delhi in a poor light. This again calls for accountability.
Yamuna is not cleaned, and the blame is passed on multiplicity of authority. The ITO area remains a traffic nightmare, and the blame once more is shifted on the usual culprit – multiplicity of authority. The people’s problems as a matter of fact are addressed by the politicians in the city by citing the alibi of multiplicity of authority. It’s worthwhile to ponder if the political class that regularly offers alibi of multiplicity of authority builds trust to gain full statehood for Delhi.
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