Arvind Kejriwal and the quest to legalise the 'illegal' in Delhi

Although I am not a great admirer of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, for once, I do support him when he says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and his ideological mentor Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are squarely responsible for the vandalism in which the National Capital’s auto and taxi unions have been indulging. I have come across many eyewitness accounts over the past two days as to how the goons of these unions are thrashing the drivers of those taxis and autos who have avoided their calls to strike.

These goons are not even sparing innocent passengers. Their vandalism has been most severe against app-based taxis and autos like Ola and Uber; in many instances the goons of the trade organisations related to the RSS are simply on a massive smashing mission against these vehicles.

In the nearly 40 years of my stay in Delhi, I must admit that if any service providers have given Delhi a really bad name, then it is the auto and taxi drivers. I have rarely come across such drivers who agree to commute you on the basis of a fare determined by meters. I have hardly seen any of their vehicles in which the GPS systems work. In fact, seldom will they take you to places that they do not want to go.

Such are their atrocities that though I avoid speculations and betting, I will not mind having this one — even if the government decides to grant a fare of Rs 100 per km for Delhi taxis and autos, most of their drivers and owners will continue to harass the commuters by avoiding meters and GPS. And this is precisely the reason they are against app-based Ola and Uber that run by meters and on GPS. They simply cannot tolerate the fact that Ola and Uber are also invariably cheaper than their “normal” charges.

Yet, political parties in Delhi, including Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party (AAP), have been traditional supporters of these erring auto and taxi unions. Kejriwal may not be supporting them directly this time, but indirectly he too is against app-based taxis as these are not strictly under his purview. In any case, it is very well-known that the auto drivers constituted one of Kejriwal’s important vote banks.

Generally, political parties in Delhi are not impressed with anything that is in the interests of the general people. They are not awed by anything that makes Delhi better. Instead, they invariably support those sections that stand in the way of the development of Delhi as a safe, healthy and orderly city. Nothing is more important to these political parties than votes. As long as these sections  provide votes, the parties will go to any extent to protect them.

And their standard argument to justify it all is that in the name of the safety, health and order, the livelihood of these people cannot be snatched away. No wonder when the Supreme Court had to intervene for shifting polluting establishments from Delhi, these parties came to the forefront in the name of “saving jobs”. And whenever the apex court instructed the government of the day to strictly implement the existing laws against illegal constructions, these parties joined hands together to legislate fresh laws to make “illegal” things “legal”.

It may be noted that the construction activities in the Indian capital are governed by the Delhi Master Plan that changes periodically.

This plan is intended to marry the residential, commercial, civic and environmental interests of the metropolis in a sustained manner. But the problem has been the manner in which building and land-use laws, based on the Master Plan, have been ignored by the residents and businessmen of Delhi. The impact of this has been disastrous, to say the least. Houses in the designated residential areas have been systematically converted into illegal commercial establishments. Farmlands have been, time and again, converted into the residential colonies. Roadsides have been illegally encroached upon for shops and the extensions of the residences, the result being the miserable traffic congestion.

In fact, so predictable is the state of affairs in Delhi that people knowingly violate the laws, because they are aware that if they manage the silence of the officials for the time being by giving them bribes, then within a few years, their illegal constructions will be given the stamp of legitimacy through new laws that their elected representatives will draw up. There is unmistakably a grand collusion of unscrupulous politicians and the civic officials. In this manner, each successive Master Plan has “legalised” all the illegal encroachments under the preceding Master Plan.

The politicians, irrespective of the parties, have always talked of “human considerations” while forcing the government of the day to legalise the illegalities. In the process, they have really gained. While “colluding” for illegal activities, they, along with the corrupt officials, earn financial and other kickbacks and while legalising the illegal activities, they earn votes!

The last time the judiciary intervened to seal and demolish the illegal and encroaching structures, the political class of Delhi joined hands and in a rare show of solidarity, passed in Parliament a law providing for a year’s moratorium before implementing the Supreme Court’s order so that they would buy time to prepare a new Master Plan that would legalise all the illegal things. In fact as an interim measure, the then Delhi government under Sheila Dikshit even promptly declared 2,183 roads of Delhi as commercial, without bothering about how it would affect traffic and other communication flows.

So much so that the then Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy threatened to call a special session of Parliament to pass special legislation to amend the Constitution so that the regularistion of all irregularities in Delhi would be beyond the scope the judiciary!

Thus, we have periodic legislature-judiciary confrontations, street agitations and violence before making every illegal thing in Delhi legal. The trader lobbies and the politicians have always tried to project everything wrong with Delhi as a “humanitarian issue”. Their rationale has been that unless you make every illegal activity legal, people will be jobless and once they are jobless they will resort to criminal activities. So do not be surprised if in the days to come, Olas and Ubers are banished from the roads of Delhi.

In sum, politicians in Delhi (and it may be true elsewhere too) are only concerned with the interests of “some”, not “all”. Whether it is Modi or Rahul Gandhi or Kejriwal, nobody is bothering about the interests of the Delhites as a whole.

Nobody cares to save the long-term interests of Delhi.