Delhi: A City
Government that it
Deserves?
We must wonder about
Joseph de Maistre’s
conclusion in 1811 that
“every nation has the government it
deserves!” There just has been too
much evidence of bad governance
this past two years for comfort.
Government is multi-layered and
the evidence that is piling up on the
streets of Delhi indicates problems
at all levels, national, state and local.
Are we so cursed a nation that we
cannot get even a modicum of good
government at any level?
Delhi is a classic example of
failure of government. In the last
two decades from being a capital
represenrative of a modern India,
Delhi has become a gigantic urban
mess with dirt and disease its
defining characteristics. It is now
a city without government. Those
who have power are not chosen by
the people. Those who are chosen
have no power.
The AAP chosen to govern is
caught in a vice between the jaws of
the BJP controlling the central and
local governments. The AAP state
government has no more power
than a Parents Teachers Association
or a Residents Welfare Association.
All the political parties know this.
That is why all of them even now
expressly state in their manifestos
that Delhi must have full statehood.
But when in power both the
Congress and BJP have preferred to
extract from it rather than give it a
government it deserves. The BJP is
now in power where it matters but
it denies Delhi the government it
needs.
We have a birth to death
relationship with our municipalities
without whose registration of births
we may not exist, and without
whose death certificate we run the
www.smartgovernance.in | February 2020 37