Scattered bricks at Shakurbasti can win votes too?

Just when you thought the politics in this country couldn’t sink any lower (and this was before Kejriwal called Indian Prime Minister a psychopath), politicians surprise you with their propensity to stoop to newer levels. Only months ago, politics was played over the dead body of Gajender Singh, who had hanged himself/was egged on to hang himself during an AAP rally on farmers’ condition. Accusations were tossed, Counter accusations were hurled, invectives were exchanged and the quality of public discourse was brought down to a new nadir. Now with the Shakurbasti slum demolition and the death of a girl there, that previous nadir seems to have become the new normal. Even before facts could be ascertained, mobs of politicians, the self proclaimed upholders of social justice, the so-called defenders of human rights landed at Shakurbasti and converted it into a new epicenter of political protests. Arvind Kejriwal’s melodramatic tweet “Coming back from the demolition site. Heart rending scenes. How cud our own countrymen do this to our poorest fellow countrymen…” set the discourse for a shrill discussion on the issue of the issue. Kejriwal’s visit was followed by Rahul Gandhi’s visit who assured the slum dwellers “Call me if they try to break your homes…. Modiji and Kejriwalji are in power…”. In all this cacophany, the voice of Rail Minister was drowned (and probably edited out by news channels). Now that the dust is settling down on this issue, it is pertinent to set aside emotions and look at the facts-

1. 60 hectares of Railway Land in Delhi is presently under encroachment. There are nearly 47000 encroachments and and 56 slum clusters on railway land in Delhi. 24000 of these encroachments are within the safety zone (within 15 mts of railway track)

2. Notices were given by Railways in March and September 2015 to Shakurbasti slum dwellers asking them to vacate the premises. The final notice had even mentioned a deadline of 12th December for clearing the encroachment.

3. The encroachment drive started on Saturday, 12th December at around noon. At around 10:30 AM that day, Police was informed that a small girl had died after a heap of clothes fell on her. At around the same time, the Police was making preparations for clearing the encroachment.

4. Autopsy reports indicate that the girl was declared brought dead at 11:39 AM, full 21 minutes before the demolitions began. Girl’s father has accepted that girl died before demolitions began.

5. Arvind Kejriwal met Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu on Monday. It was decided to resettle slum dwellers before demolitions are carried out.

One can only wonder why there is a political storm raging on this issue, when facts clearly point towards Railways having done nothing wrong. The death of the girl, Ruqaiya, under whatever circumstances was most unfortunate, however, to bake political bread over her dead body smacks of hypocrisy and vote bank politics. The problem of slums and shanties in Delhi is nothing new. The national capital has been grappling with this problem for decades now. In the last few years, under the Sheila Dixit administration, it seemed that efforts had been made to eradicate this problem. This was aided by the beautification drive that was undertaken during the commonwealth games. However, it seems that these efforts will be stalled now that AAP, that counts slum dwellers as its major vote bank is in power in the city. In fact, AAP activists had alleged that Shakubasti slum dwellers were being persecuted because they had voted for AAP during the elections.

Thanks to this bane of vote bank politics, of which AAP is a great votary, Delhi will forever remain a third world city. There will always be slums, shanties and JJ colonies. People will set up their tents in the middle of a pavement, they will wash themselves on the footpaths, they will relieve themselves on the roadside, they will dry their laundry on road dividers, they will hook electrical wires to get electricity to their shanties and all this while they and their children beg with outstretched arms. All this while, they will continue to be labelled as illegal encroachers. But they will be illegal only in name, for if anyone tries to enforce the rule of law, our political class, our intellectuals, our liberals and our leftists will, pounce on the enforcer as a hungry, ravenous, pack of wolves. Even as we debate this issue, their are shanties and slums in the heart of the city, painting a real picture of the the second class, third world country that we really are.

Ruqaiya, the small child who died at Shakurbasti, could have become a potent symbol of the need to resettle all slum and shanty dwellers to safe and secure accommodation. That would have required determination and will power from our politicians. Sadly, It is far easier to cook up stories and shed crocodile tears.

References:

http://www.thehindu.com/…/baby-found-dea…/article7983249.ece

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…/articlesh…/50179714.cms