EDITORIAL
Beneath the Debris
Thursday, December 22, 2005
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
The state, seized by one of its bouts of righteousness, has taken to the streets of Delhi on a bulldozer. Houses and shops have been torn down, their occupants being thrown out in the cold.
The state tends to assume this incarnation from time to time, when municipal zealots like K J Alphons, G R Khairnar, Arun Bhatia and Jagmohan assume centrestage.
This time, the overt righteousness is missing, but there is no mistaking chief minister Sheila Dikshit's interest in 'cleaning up' Delhi before the Commonwealth Games.
A shrewd politician, she claims she cannot but implement the high court order, while the MCD goes about its business as though correct practice and procedure come naturally to it.
She would, like Jagmohan or Sanjay Gandhi, know that a section of the middle class supports such operations in the mistaken belief that they punish wrongdoers and restore civic order.
This section should realise that while its concern for a rules-based society is all very well, its faith in the state as a moral custodian is misplaced and dangerous.
In the present instance, ordinary citizens who were forced into bribing the authorities to keep their homes and hearths going have been reduced to criminals.
The real culprits, functionaries of the Delhi government who accepted bribes, will at best lose an increment. Isn't this how the citizen-state equation has always been?
The state is like Kafka's castle, with improprieties concealed in its labyrinths; the citizen cannot even enter that musty interior.
The likes of Dikshit should accept that unauthorised housing, which comes cheaper, is a response to the huge gap between demand for shelter and its availability.
The courts insist on abiding by zoning laws, without fully taking into account the conditions that lead to their violation. The builders' lobby collaborates with the government to bend the rules or flout them, creating illegal commercial complexes on property worth hundreds of crores.
While such entities often enjoy political protection, the stick falls on middle class and poor citizens. The government has complicated the problem by being a builder, creating a maze of illegality in the process.
It should instead step back, clean its stables and ensure that builders stick to the law. A concern for order must be accompanied by democratic intent for it to appear convincing.
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