Mumbai's 9 million slumdwellers to decide electoral fate of India's richest city

By Gajanan Khergamker*
India’s financial capital and home to the largest number of the richest in the nation, 46,000 millionaires and counting – Mumbai – will be going to polls on April 29. With a total wealth of $ 950 billion, according to the New World Wealth, Mumbai figures 13th on the list of the 15 Wealthiest Cities across the world, beating Toronto and Paris. The riches notwithstanding, the city’s poll prospects will be decided by its more than half slum-dwellers.
While estimates put the population of Mumbai to around 22 million in 2018, about 9 million live in the slums spread across the city. And, the issues that drive the target voter remain much the same over the last decade: Issues that affect the slum-dweller.
Oddly, poll prospects in Mumbai have, since long, been decided by the slum-dweller who literally holds the politics of the city at ransom by sheer dint of representational numbers and will. “Shiv Sainiks have always been chowkidars,” offers sitting Shiv Sena MP from Mumbai South, Arvind Sawant. “My party has always been alert and vigil since its inception and provides security to the city,” says Sawant, jumping on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most recent Chowkidar bandwagon.
Doing a swift turnabout, Shiv Sena, BJP’s long-standing ally in the state after raving and ranting about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in its official channels throughout the preceding tenure, leaving no stone unturned in insulting the PM following every move or speech, has decided to dump the criticism and go along with BJP in the state polls.
It was Rahul Gandhi’s ‘chowkidar chor hai’ barb at Prime Minister Narendra Modi that had left miffed the security guards association in Mumbai and concurrent demands for the Mumbai police to file a case against the Congress president.
The Maharashtra Rajya Suraksha Rakshak Union even submitted an application at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) police station in Mumbai last month, claiming the remark was an "insult" to security guard. “The police should register an offence against Gandhi to stop such kind of slogans that insult security guards,” offers Union president Sandeep Ghuge.
Almost all security guards and watchman live in slums in Mumbai and most of them have even managed to get their voter identity cards updated with their local addresses. “Why, every political party in Mumbai panders to the whims of the slum-dweller. It is, after all, the slum-dweller who decides on the poll fortunes of the sitting corporator, MLA or MP,” maintains Security Systems expert MR Rao, a resident of Kandivali.
“Issues that affect the middle class are hardly tackled by political parties who, despite representing the whole of Mumbai, actually cater only to the slum-dweller,” says a disgruntled Rao.
Mumbai has a unique temperament when it comes to elections. The rich and the upper middle class will talk endlessly about the political situation in the city, the dearth of will of elected representatives, the ruin of the city’s heritage and common amenities and more yet not exercise their right of franchise on the day that matters the most.
And, where the working middle-class is concerned, they’re already making plans for a long weekend as the polling date falls on a Monday. “In Mumbai, elections are associated with a lengthy holiday period when most working class people move out with their families,” says Company Secretary aspirant and Ghatkopar resident Nilesh Gala with nonchalance. “What they don’t realise that it is this mentality that ‘how much will my single vote matter’ that stalls progress. Voting should be made mandatory by law here,” he adds.
It’s this apathy towards voting that deprives them of the right to exercise any sizeable control over the city’s MP who knows that the only group that will exercise its franchise right religiously is those living in the slums. After all, it’s the issues that affect the slums and their resolution that bear direct relevance to the prospects of the sitting or the aspirant MP. Issues of water shortage, of power, of legitimacy to their shanties or business, of security from regular police or BMC raids to their business or place of work.
Mumbai’s richest figure in statistics and surveys yet exercise nearly no control over political representatives who are dependent entirely on a slum population for their votes. And, the slums don’t every let them down. It isn’t without reason that Mumbai BJP unsure of tying up with partner Shiv Sena in the city, on February 11 launched the six-day ‘Garib Rath Yatra’ to strengthen its base among slum dwellers and migrant labourers.
The party had then reached out to these audiences in all 227 civic wards of Mumbai and explain to them the schemes launched by BJP’s central and state governments for slum dwellers and the lower income strata of urban voters.
After all, they’re the ones who vote in Mumbai and whose votes actually matter.
---
Editor, The Draft. A version of this article first appeared HERE

Comments

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Call to "enjoy" pilgrimage of Sabarmati beyond Ahmedabad, where river water turns black

Sabarmati at Vautha By A Representative Nagrik Sashaktikaran Manch (NSM), a Gujarat-based civil rights organization, has called upon the state's citizens to join in a "unique yatra" along the river Sabarmati, starting in Ahmedabad and ending off the Gulf of Khambhat, where the river is supposed to merge with the sea. Pointing out that in Hindu culture, rivers are equated with Mother Goddess, NSM convener Jatin Seth says, it will be a "special event of pilgrimage", because, just like Ganga, Sarbarmati possesses "special properties." "Starting at Giaspur, one can see how industries are releasing chemicals in Sabarmati, and you get a Thumbs-Up like colour of the water, and if you drink it, you are sure to be at least affected by cancer, and this way would enable you to book your ticket in the paradise. The river has a special smell, too, emanating from a black cocktail-type colour", says Seth in a statement. A village next to Sabarmati river In...

Budget for 2018-19: Ahmedabad authorities "regularly" under-spend allocation

By Mahender Jethmalani* The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC's) General Body (Municipal Board) recently passed the AMC’s annual budget estimates of Rs 6,990 crore for 2018-19. AMC’s revenue expenditure for the next financial year is Rs 3,500 crore and development budget (capital budget) is Rs 3,490 crore.

Is India emulating west, 'using' anti-terror plank to justify state-supported violence?

Fahad Ahmad, Baljit Nagra* Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India of being involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh leader, on Canadian soil. Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian government is defiant and denies involvement. Indian officials have instead admonished Canada for being a “ safe haven ” for Sikh “terrorism,” a pejorative for Sikh self-determination .

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Covid response? How, gripped by fear and groupthink, scientists 'failed' children

By Bhaskaran Raman* “Today’s children are tomorrow’s future”, “Nurture children’s dreams”, “A child’s smile is sunlight”. These are some cliches, rendered rather uninspiring through repetition and obviousness. However, for nearly 2½ years, society forgot these cliches, children suffered as science failed and groupthink prevailed. Worse, all of this has been swept under the rug.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Made to sit for hours in DySP office, Gujarat police tells Ranjanben she was never called

Ranjanben in DySP office on November 10 By Pankti Jog* The alleged illegal detention of a visually challenged Right to Information (RTI) and disability rights activist, Ranjanben Vaghela, has taken an unusual turn, with the police, in a reply to her RTI plea, have said, they did not have “any records” of her “detention.”

Search This Blog