Indian Cities needs its own politics

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears. This quote from Italo Calvino reverberates in my mind when I imagine any city in India. Cities are talent magnets, epicenter of innovation and heartbeat of any economy. Yet cities are messy, noisy, dusty and in India’s case, filthy. As India gears up to its ambition to become a $10 trillion economy, her cities need to be more resilient, both economically and administratively. However, to build a robust and sustainable city, I argue that we need a robust and sustainable local politics.

First, let me make it clear that I am not an urban Pessimist. I firmly believe in the brilliant lines of Lewis Mumford that that last invention of villages are cities. The trajectory of progress of human civilization crisscrosses through many many cities throughout history of time. Cities are grand subsidizers of much romanticized rural life. For instance, almost 40% of Karnataka’s GSDP is from Bangalore and almost 60% of Haryana government’s revenue is from Gurgaon. These cities are no just IT hubs, they also have manufacturing clusters and education clusters. Cities offer talent density where innovation thrives. Innovation fuels the economy and further attracts more talent. This is a Virtuous cycle generating win-win results for society. There cannot be innovation though without migration. Migration and Urbanization are two sides of the same coin. Occasional noises from political circles taking stance against migration or making a case for residential decongestion is like making a case for economic suicide. Cities will be crowded and increasing crowd is a good sign.

Now, I am not a foolish optimist either. Indian cities today are obscene and esthetic nightmare. Waterlogging, waste mountains, traffic bottleneck, fire catching lakes and ginger shaped glass buildings are common sight. It almost appears to be anarchic. Yet, we elect members to city corporations, and we elect them at regular interval. There is a full constitutional amendment (74^th Amendment act) which mandates decentralization of power to Urban local body. However as big a city becomes in India; more powerless its mayor become. I bet you all. Name the Mayor of your city without doing a google search. If you know the name, you must be preparing for UPSC.

Politics is important because politics create Incentives. In democracy, the most competitive market place is the political market place. Intense political competition forces elected representatives to act. Most of the time,it yields good result for it’s people. However, I dare say that Indian cities are bureaucratic dictatorship. The elected positions are powerless figureheads of no consequence. It starts from the basics. The Town planning. Indian town planners are not Mayors or ward members, they are bureaucrats of development authorities. They report to state governments and at that unit of government, cities are just a cash cow which generate funds to be redistributed in villages where political power is generated. As a result, the time horizon taken by town planners generally span over half a century. As Devashish Dhar points out in his book Blind Spot, urban planners think in formal terms, i.e., Industrial, commercial, and residential. This is classic bureaucratic thinking which lacks thinking of the informal. Urban spaces are not static. Migration happens, urban sprawl expands into slums, and they crave for space. Bureaucratic planning lacks this imagination totally. A large part of the blame for huge disparities in living condition in Indian cities lies with these town planners. Moreover, the character of a city changes every few years and planners have to react. If horizon of a planner is 25 years, then it lacks any agility to react to changes. Here is where more politics will help. A powerful and political mayor as envisaged in the 74^th amendment will have to react to informality and to changing character to safeguard their political interests.

Political administration needs finance. Many of us know that Finance Commission of India recommends vertical devolution of funds from union to state governments and union government generally accepts its recommendation. However, very little is known about State Finance Commission (SFC) which recommends devolution of funds from state governments to local governments. However, did you know that state of Jharkhand did not constitute SFC till 2013. The states where SFCs exist are again dominated by bureaucrats and not experts. As a result SFC recommendations are loaded against local bodies and hence the local governments are starved of funds. State governments get away with this because the urban local politics is not robust enough to create pressure for funds. The time has now come for a local body list to be introduced in the constitution like the Union and State list. This would ensure the first necessary step of subsidiarity principle of governance. Once administrative functions are clearly demarcated and power is devolved, finance will make its way on it’s own.

For Urban Politics of mega cities to boom, state capital should be shifted out of mega cities. No major city is a state capital in USA. Capital of Illinois is not Chicago and Capital of New York state is not New York City. Cleaning the state capital out of mega cities, creates space for city politics to thrive. Once a city is unburdened of its responsibility of being a state capital, it can breathe in local issues in it’s political discourse that would create the right political pressure and incentives.

Embracing a vibrant urban politics isn’t merely a democratic ideal. It’s fulfilling of a constitutional promise. It’s a social contract between it’s dwellers and rulers where the dwellers promise innovation and entrepreneurship and rulers promise equitable and inclusive governance.