ByVaranasi transformed itself to welcome Shinzo Abe, but the city of temples continues to resist a Japan-inspired template.Varanasi, the city between the rivers Varuna and Assi. Benares, “jiska ras bana rahta hai”, the city which never loses its sweetness. Kashi, the place that supposedly stands on the trishul of Lord Shiva.The city with three names might as well be three different cities, and there is still some debate about which of the three did Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Narendra visit yesterday. They drove from the airport to the Dashashwamedh Ghat to see the aarti together. It is believed that Lord Brahma had performed a yagna here to welcome Lord Shiva. The yagna is believed to have involved the ritual sacrifice of ten horses. The reception for Shinzo Abe, though comparable, was also a little different.The route from the airport to the ghat had been spruced up so magnificently in ten days — fresh paint and brooms were deployed as if on a war-footing — that a local newspaper quipped in with a jibe. Varanasi, it joked, had temporarily become a ‘smart’ city. Many residents even heeded the Varanasi Municipal Corporation’s request to light up their house-fronts with lamps and lights. The city was dressed like a royal bride. It wasn’t every day that its proverbial king hosts an equal in this constituency.Japanese PM Abe was treated to a sight of Benares which had been carefully curated. There was a shehnai recital. Buddhist monks blew trumpets. After the aarti at Dashashwamedh, there were other cultural performances organised in a palace. Abe, though, might have noticed the white LED lights on the ghats, inaugurated by Union minister Piyush Goyal. The idea here was that these energy-efficient lights will help the long stretch of ghats resemble Mumbai’s Marine Drive. The result was unfortunate. Complaining that white light is an eyesore, locals are demanding that their amber shade be returned.Home to a fair few Modi roadshows by now, newly painted and freshly clean streets always seem to inspire mockery first. Pristineness, Banarasis admit, comes with an expiry date. In their city, that time is guessed to be two weeks. Honed Benares tourists would have undoubtedly been surprised to see its decked avatar yesterday. Seldom has the city been so immaculately neat. The VIP makeover only helps accentuate what residents feel is a 364-day-long apathy.“What we are seeing is patchwork in the name of development,” explains Vishwanath Pandey. The retired professor of Banaras Hindu University now oversees the university’s centennial celebrations. “In my youth, Benares used to have a lot of greenery. There were no mosquitoes. You’d be surprised if I showed you roads through which buses used to pass. They are so congested now, you cannot imagine a bus here.”While Pandey’s nostalgia seems to cause his dissatisfaction, others in Benares are more infuriated by a visible disparity. After Prime Minister Modi had removed sand and dirt from Assi Ghat with a shovel in November last year, Sulabh International laboured on to ensure an unblemished metamorphosis. Despite their Swachh Bharat logos, however, many of the 83 remaining ghats haven’t quite succeeded in their emulation of Assi. PM Modi might have Abe’s ‘saath’, but ‘vikaas’ in Kashi is still only erratic.Contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, Narendra Modi had promised a “sea change in the lives of people of Varanasi and Purvanchal, so that this region once again becomes the focal point of our nation’s development and our proud culture.” Visiting the city in September, he promised to make up for “50 years of work in 5’’. His vision for his constituency has quite obviously always been grand.In August last year, when Modi visited Japan, Varanasi and Kyoto signed a memorandum of agreement. For over a thousand years, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan. Despite wars, earthquakes and fires, its 1,600 Buddhist temples, many more shrines and historical buildings survive to this day. Today’s Kyoto is, along with its heritage, also a big urban centre. While the agreement stated that Kashi would learn lessons from Kyoto in aspects such as waste and traffic management, people in Varanasi firmly believe the idea was to transform Varanasi into something it isn’t. Kashi is a timeless city, they say, and needs no Kyoto. Often thought of as a mispronunciation of Tokyo, Kyoto proves easy to shrug off for many sceptical residents of India’s temple city. For them, the Japanese city is an unlikely mirage, only a reminder that despite Modi’s promises of fulfilling their aspirations, the reality outside their houses remains as bleak even 18 months after he took charge of the PMO.The question, even if contentious, still remains interesting — can the model of Kyoto speed up civic development in Varanasi? “Modi was inspired by Kyoto’s topography. Modi wasn’t born in Varanasi. Since Kyoto is a religious city, why can’t Varanasi be a clean, modern city while still preserving its heritage, just as Kyoto does?” asks writer Amitabh Bhattacharya, a quintessential Banarasi who has to first step out to spit his paan before he can even say hello. “Kyoto is the small kidney of a parrot. It can’t fit on a dinosaur. Kyoto is just an approach. We can learn something from it, that is all,” he says.For Bhattacharya, Benares’ large population makes his dinosaur comparison work. The city’s population density, he says, makes urgent Kashi’s need to expand and reinvent. According to him, a new ring road is a fitting solution. Talked about for nearly two decades, work on this new ring road has only just begun. Though a date of completion remains uncertain, the road will help decongest traffic by diverting vehicles which travel between neighbouring districts. In terms of a tangible translation of promise, this perhaps is the only bit of development that the prime minister’s supporters can point to. Bhattacharya, though, is all praise. He says that for the first time in decades, someone is really trying to better the city, and that the Varanasi MP must be encouraged. Despite his optimism, however, Bhattacharya is realistic about present achievements — “We’re singing songs in anticipation.”The Varanasi Municipal Corporation has been a bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party for 25 years now. The somnolent staff at his office suddenly gets into a frenzy as Ram Gopal Mohley’s car arrives. Mayor of Varanasi since 2012, Mohley walks in, sees the dirty guest seats, and then summons the caretaker.An integral part of the four exchanges that have taken place until now Mohley recently returned from Kyoto. He says, “In Kyoto, work is worship. There is perfect time management. And public transport has been given primary importance. But Kyoto is 800 square kilometres large, Varanasi is 80, with an identical population of 1.3 million or so. Can you see the challenge there?” What makes his task Herculean, he says, is that virtually every month there is a festival which brings to Varanasi additional pilgrims from across the country. Migrants from across eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have flocked here. Expansion of the city needs land acquisition, which the state government is responsible for. “CM Akhilesh Yadav always promises his co-operation, but bureaucrats don’t respond to our proposals.”Mohley does not want to be critical of the Samajwadi Party government as his work requires daily co-operation from them. His predecessor Kaushalendra Singh is more outspoken. “When I was mayor, I could not even transfer a chaprasi without permission from the municipal commissioner, who reports to the state government. If only the mayor was as powerful and independent as the one in Kyoto.” Singh cites the example of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, money from which was given by the state government directly to the Jal Nigam and other state authorities without consulting the municipal corporation. “The Jal Nigam isn’t able to run sewage plants or provide water because they don’t have technical skills. Added to that, there is also corruption and gross inefficiency,” says Singh. Increasingly, however, not many Banarasis are buying into the state government’s excuse. They say the BJP has control of the municipal corporation, that it has MLAs and an MP. “You have to understand that the implementing authority is ultimately the state government,” says Singh, affirming his defence.On Pandey Ghat, a few minutes from where Modi and Abe sat, lives Kumiko, a 66 year-old-Japanese woman who married her Bihari husband in 1976. They then started a guesthouse on the ghat. The difference between Japan and Benares, she says in clear Hindi, is that in Japan the work has to be finished here and now. In Benares, today’s work can get done tomorrow, or maybe even day after.