INFRASTRUCTURE, POLITICS, GOVERNANCE: THE MATURATION OF URBAN ISSUES

INFRASTRUCTURE, POLITICS, GOVERNANCE: THE MATURATION OF URBAN ISSUES  

In his remarkable story about the creation of the United Nations, Stephen Schlesinger uncovers the little-known script that was being played out in the months and days around the end of the Second World War.

 One of the sub-texts of the tale is the cast of characters involved in shaping the outcomes. It was a remarkable mix of people with varied backgrounds, driven by a common vision to build a robust structure for lasting peace. In Schlesinger’s own words, “what shines through…is the unusual intellect and honest idealism of these founding fathers and mothers of the UN.”

There were immigrants – Leo Pasvolsky from Russia, the draftsman of the Charter; scions of American empire – Averell Hariman of Union Pacific Railroad, Ambassador to the Soviet Union; professionals from the private sector – Edward Stettinius, Chairman of US Steel, one of the architects of the negotiations; as well as those who had dedicated their lives to issues of public policy – Harry Hopkins, who brokered a crucial peace with Stalin. 

As I read Schlesinger’s book, I could not help contrasting this with how issues of politics, policy and public governance in India today are significantly insulated from the larger public. In our collective mind-map, we envisage a group of people within the three pillars of the executive, legislature and judiciary who have the responsibility to “manage” the affairs of State. And reserve the right with the rest of us to either critique their work - offering lazy Sunday afternoon commentaries – or pontificate on how the system is being hijacked by special interest groups who have no political legitimacy. 

The recent developments in Bangalore offer an appropriate canvas to examine these issues. Beginning with some sections of the IT sector threatening to withdraw from the state government’s annual IT conference, events mounted to a final showdown that took place last week, where the Chief Minister shook hands with industry titans and smoked the peace pipe. Responses were varied: for the IT sector, guarded optimism; for smokestack industries and the SME segment, frustration that their voices are not as potent; for the average citizen, uncertainty about how this will trickle down to their neighbourhoods. And for students of democracy and due process, several questions about what transpired: the city elected representatives were nowhere to be seen in all this, how was due process being followed? Is the city only about the IT sector?  

Clearly, the decibel levels are rising in urban India. As these voices create pressure on the system to “deliver infrastructure”, they are also opening up space for more meaningful questions to be asked: what is the legitimacy of these voices, who should be making decisions in public institutions, how is this linked to urban politics, and what exactly does urban governance mean? These questions are not immediately apparent, but as more people start agitating – either on the streets, or in their own minds – about the state of urban affairs, there is hope that this energy can be harnessed. 

Two questions are at the heart of how our public institutions function: one, who are the legitimate players in public decision-making; and two, what kinds of processes should exist for such decisions. Ultimately, there are only two legitimate political players: voters and their representatives. Today, in urban local government, both of these are constrained in many ways: the representatives by an oppressive state government that refuses to let go of the reins; and voters by all levels of government that still see them as feudal recipients of largesse and patronage. And as far as spaces go, voters have none beyond elections, whereas city councillors at least have their half-empowered councils. There is therefore much work to be done to create more political space, as well as strengthen political actors.  

Most experts in democracy would nod wearily at these statements: been there, done that. But the challenging part is to see whether today’s restless energy in our cities can be harnessed, and channelised to make such change happen. Can the cracks of infrastructure in our cities be used push open the more meaningful debate about these two fundamental issues? And if so, how can this process unfold? Should the actors and scriptwriters of this change only be legitimate political players, or can others – the IT sector leaders, for instance – play significant roles?  

These are possibly more interesting questions compared to the stultifying finger-pointing that some academic purists are engaging in, tut-tuting about the illegitimate and undemocratic nature of these unfolding events. Public change requires many different energies, as the UN example illustrates. Our own Constitution was not a consensus document that reflected the opinions of the 300 million Indians of the time. However, it captured an essential truth about how we ought to govern ourselves, and was framed with intellectual and moral rigour by people who understood the import of their actions and had the maturity to handle this with the due care and custodial respect that the privilege deserved. Are we saying that somehow they were an exclusive enlightened generation, never again to be replaced by similar men and women? 

There is much work to be done in building upon the scaffolding of democracy that we have inherited. We need to move beyond superficial ideas of how change happens in order to solve the more complex challenges of our society. And in this, it is impossible to believe that change can only come from within the system. We have a collective responsibility to strengthen and deepen our democratic institutions. However, the guiding principle of such endeavours should be uncompromising: of contributing to the strengthening of democratic processes, rather than short-circuit due process to expedite pet ideas.  

Urban infrastructure is the issue du jour. It seems only a matter of time before this yeilds to the more substantive debates about politics and governance. And with it, solutions to strenghten democratic spaces and actors. All hands ought to be welcome on board!
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The writer is Campaign Coordinator of Janaagraha. He can be reached at ramesh@janaagraha.org