Sharad Pawar failed to groom a successor: Uddhav Sena's Saamana

The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 08-05-2023 | 11:45 am

In a surprising turn, Saamana, the party mouthpiece of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), criticised the party’s key ally Sharad Pawar Monday, saying the NCP president failed to groom a successor who could take the party forward. The paper, however, also credited Pawar for what it said was a “masterstroke” to spoil the BJP’s game plan of splitting the NCP with his resignation episode.“Sharad Pawar is like an old tree of the political field. He exited the Congress and set up his own party, the Nationalist Congress Party. He took the party forward, which made its presence felt. However, he has failed to create a leadership that will hold the reins of the party after him. The party has its roots in Maharashtra…,” the paper, with Sena MP Sanjay Raut as its Executive Editor, said in an editorial.“There is no doubt that Pawar is a big leader on the national platform and his word has respect in national politics. However, he has failed to create his successor who can take his party forward. And that is the reason why his party was rattled when he decided to resign as the president. Every party worker was worried about his fate,” it added.The paper said, “The moment Pawar announced his decision to step down from party president’s post, it caused a sensation in national politics which was but natural. More than national politics, it affected his party more. Because Sharad Pawar means Nationalist Congress Party….”The paper also praised Pawar’s recent move to announce his resignation. “The BJP split the Shiv Sena. Likewise, it had a plan to break the NCP into two. Some people were ready with ‘bags’ and had kept lodging-boarding ready for those arriving there. However, Sharad Pawar’s masterstroke ensured that the BJP’s game plan went to the dustbin,” it said.The editorial claimed that one group of the NCP wanted Sharad Pawar to join hands with the BJP and free them from the harassment of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Income Tax Department. “However, Pawar refused to toe their line. Not just that, the moment he announced his resignation from the party president’s post, Maharashtra’s political terrain suffered an electric shock. The party rank and file pressured him to take back his resignation…,” it said.The Saamana editorial said following pressure from NCP workers and leaders, Pawar decided to set up a committee. “He appointed a jumbo-sized committee. And who made it to the committee? Many of them were those who were insisting that the NCP join hands with the BJP. But due to the anger among party workers, the committee was left with no option but to reject the resignation of Sharad Pawar as party president. The committee was to tell Pawar that, ‘hereafter only he and he will remain the president.’ Thus, before the third edition could end, Pawar brought the curtains down on it,” it said.The editorial also claimed Pawar had no choice but to stay on as president.“At the same time, the event helped Pawar understand where his party was veering towards. Pawar said those who want to leave the NCP can do so and he will not stop them. That means those who wanted to leave have been stopped in their tracks, at least temporarily. However, the BJP’s lodging-boarding facility still remains in place,” it added.It alleged that the BJP does not believe in winning elections through democratic means. “It does not have the capability to win elections on its own. It wants to use ED, CBI, and Income Tax [Department] and play its political games,” it claimed.

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2 rivals, 1 stone: Gehlot tries to corner Pilot, Raje at one go

The Indian Express | 2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

The Indian Express

2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s recent remarks about former CM Vasundhara Raje and two other BJP leaders helping save his government during the 2020 political crisis have turned up the heat in the state. The comments assume further significance because of their timing, coming just when multiple power struggles are underway in the state within both the Congress and the BJP.Last month, the ball was in former Deputy CM and Gehlot’s chief rival Sachin Pilot’s court after his allégations of corruption during the Raje government’s tenure and that they were not being probed. The Tonk MLA’s camp has been implying that the Gehlot administration went soft on these alleged corruption cases because of alleged collusion between the two.Gehlot countered this by bringing back the ghost of the 2020 political crisis. Now, the CM has put both Pilot and Raje in a tough spot — and has once again underlined that the cauldron of factionalism in the Congress state unit will continue to simmer even ahead of the coming Assembly elections.By saying that Congress MLAs accepted money — a charge that has always been vehemently denied by the 18 Congress MLAs who sided with Pilot in 2020 — Gehlot has raised questions of propriety in the Pilot camp. Just a day before the explosive speech in Dholpur, Pilot had declared at a rally in Barmer district that he would “continue to raise his voice against corruption”. Talking to reporters later, he once again reiterated his demand for a probe into the alleged corruption cases from Raje’s time.Gehlot’s reply to Pilot – he did not name him once in his speech – was swift. He urged “Congress MLAs who took money from the BJP to return it” and even offered to arrange the money himself.Throughout his speech, Gehlot targeted Union Ministers Amit Shah, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, with whom he shares a tumultuous relationship. Shekhawat currently represents Jodhpur in the Lok Sabha, a constituency that had in the past elected Gehlot five times. In 2019, the CM’s son, Vaibhav, lost the seat to Shekhawat.This time around, the message is clear from Gehlot. If the Pilot camp targets him for not taking action against alleged corruption cases from the tenure of the previous government, he will hit back with his claim of Congress MLAs taking money from the BJP in 2020.Congress Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa also used the same tactic recently. Asked about Pilot’s demand for action against Gehlot loyalists who skipped a CLP meeting in September last year and held a parallel meeting with MLAs to stall Pilot’s CM bid, Randhawa promptly spoke of the 2020 political crisis, calling it a “rebellion”.But the big question is why Gehlot praised Raje. The answer can be gauged from Raje’s reaction to Gehlot. She issued a scathing statement on Sunday night, saying that Gehlot was “engineering a big conspiracy against her” and “nobody has insulted her the way Gehlot has in his life”.By praising Raje, the two-time CM and the BJP’s most well-known face in Rajasthan, Gehlot likely is trying to drive a wedge within the already divided state BJP that has multiple leaders with chief ministerial ambitions.Shekhawat, for example, is a known detractor of Raje. Back in 2018, Raje had put her foot down when the party wanted to install the MP as state BJP president. Gehlot’s praise for Raje could diminish her equation with the BJP high command, with whom she already shares a frosty relationship. In the recent past, the BJP central leadership has also cut several regional satraps to size.Gehlot, who is leaving no stone unturned to retain power by breaking a 25-year-old trend of the incumbent government changing every five years, also knows that whenever Raje has been declared the BJP chief ministerial candidate, be it 2003 or 2013, he has been unseated from power. Gehlot has much to gain from the infighting in the BJP in the event of Raje getting sidelined and her loyalists reacting with anger.The Leader of the Opposition in the state, Rajendra Rathore, too hit out at Gehlot for his statements and asked why the CM, also the Home Minister, did not lodge FIRs against the MLAs he accused of accepting money from the BJP.Incidentally, hours after his Sunday speech, Gehlot shared the stage with state minister Ramesh Meena at another programme in Karauli. Meena was among the Pilot loyalists who had camped in Manesar and Delhi during the 2020 crisis. Since then, Meena is known to have switched to the Gehlot camp. He was stripped of his ministerial post after the failed rebellion but was reinstated a year later during the Cabinet expansion.

Ex-civil servants, retired cops join Prashant Kishor’s corner

The Indian Express | 2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

The Indian Express

2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

Eight districts, 3,000 km, and over seven months later, poll strategist Prashant Kishor is now in Vaishali district as part of his padayatra. While it is not yet known how much effect Kishor’s campaign of political rejuvenation has had, one constituency that is joining him in droves is former bureaucrats and police officers.On Sunday, 12 retired IPS officers joined Kishor’s “Jan Suraaj” campaign at a function in Patna. The week before, four retired IAS officers and two former Bihar Administrative Services (BAS) officers had joined the campaign, which Kishor started with the aim of bringing change in Bihar’s political landscape and providing an alternative to people.The former IPS officers who joined the campaign on Sunday are former Chhattisgarh Director General of Police (DGP) S K Paswan, retired Bihar Inspector General of Police (Home Guards) Jitendra Mishra, retired Deputy Inspector General (DIG) K B Singh, retired Inspector General (IG) Umesh Singh, retired DIG Anil Singh, Shiva Kumar Jha who is also a former DIG, retired IG Ashok Kumar Singh, former DGP Rakesh Kumar Mishra, and former IPS officers C P Kiran, Mohammed Rahman Momin, Shanker Jha, and Dilip Mishra.Earlier, former state Cabinet Special Secretary Ajay Kumar Dwivedi, former Secretary Arvind Kumar Singh, former Purnia Commissioner Lalan Yadav, retired Betia Raj administrator Tulsi Kumar, former Joint Secretary for Health Suresh Sharma, and former Joint Secretary for the Rural Works Department Gopal Narayan Singh had joined Kishor.These officers, however, do not have specified roles. A functionary of the “Jan Suraaj” campaign said, “At present, the focus is the padayatra. But eminent people joining the campaign has emboldened the campaign and all these people will have an important role to play in times to come.” In an interview to The Indian Express before starting the padayatra last October, Kishor said, “We will announce the party soon after the padayatra. I have already announced that I will not lead it. I will neither be elected nor selected. But it will have a leader who will be selected from among its workers …”Anil Singh said, “The idea of ‘suraaj (good governance)’ of Mahatma Gandhi is far from being realised because of the dynastic element in politics. The politics of today means corruption. We have joined Prashant Kishor to realise the forgotten dreams of ‘suraaj’.”Said Paswan, “Joiming Jan Suraaj feels like a dream. I want to help Kishor realise the dream.”Rakesh Kumar Mishra said, “People will be wondering what former bureaucrats want to prove by joining Jan Suraaj. Let me remind people when the Indian freedom struggle started, a lot of intellectuals also joined the movement. We want to bring change in the current system by joining Kishor.”While Kishor did not issue any public statement on the new joinings, sources close to him said the poll strategist had pointed out that it was for the first time that a dozen former police officers had joined a political outfit’s campaign. Earlier, Kishor said at least 200 former IAS and IPS officers and serving professionals were in touch with the “Jan Suraaj” campaign.Former TN DGP joins RJDMeanwhile, retired IPS officer and former Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) Karuna Sagar has joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The former police officer joined the party in Patna on Sunday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav.“We are very happy and honoured that Karuna Sagar ji has joined us. He will further strengthen the party with his rich experience in policing and administration. Bihar needs leadership like Tejaswi who has progressive thinking. I joined the RJD because I am deeply influenced by Lalu Prasad’s ideology.”

Tagore in 1908: ‘I'll never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity’Premium Story

The Indian Express | 2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

The Indian Express

2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

In 1908, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a letter to his friend, A M Bose, and said, “Patriotism can’t be our final spiritual shelter. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.” Three years after he wrote this letter — part of Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, published by Cambridge University Press in 1997 — his composition, Jana Gana Mana, was sung for the first time at the Calcutta session of the Congress. Now, 105 years later, as a Supreme Court bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy makes it mandatory for movie halls to play Jana Gana Mana and for people present to stand up as part of their “sacred obligation” to the national anthem, Tagore’s composition has come to symbolise nationalism — something the Nobel laureate was not only critical of, but had famously described as “carnivorous and cannibalistic”.Recently, Trinamool Congress MP Sugata Bose said in Parliament, “I sometimes fear that those who are defining nationalism so narrowly will end up one day describing Rabindranath Tagore as anti-national if they read some of the sentences in his book on nationalism.”Watch What Else Is making NewsThroughout his life, Tagore remained deeply critical of nationalism, a position that pitted him against Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore argued that when love for one’s country gives way to worship, or becomes a “sacred obligation”, then disaster is the inevitable outcome. “I am willing to serve my country; but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than country. To worship my country as a god is to bring curse upon it,” Tagore wrote in his 1916 novel, The Home and the World. The words were spoken by Nikhil, one of the two protagonists in the novel, who many thought to be Tagore’s alter-ego.Further, Tagore argued that disagreement and different notions were of utmost importance. Writing from the Soviet Union in 1937, Tagore reacted positively to the Soviet Experiment, particularly their attempts at eradicating lack of education, but warned of any attempt to curb “freedom of mind”. He wrote, “It would be an uninteresting but a sterile world of mechanical regularity if all our opinions were forcibly made alike… Opinions are constantly changed and rechanged only through free circulation of intellectual forces and persuasion. Violence begets violence and blind stupidity. Freedom of mind is needed for the reception of truth; terror hopelessly kills it.”From 1877-1917, Tagore’s stance on Swadeshi and the anti-Partition movement of Bengal were one with the political climate. But from 1921, as fractures in society — communal and caste — became apparent, Tagore confessed, “I took a few steps down the road, and then stopped.”Though Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi shared a philosophical affinity and mutual respect, their disagreement on nationalism would culminate in debates that continue to be relevant. Tagore had warned Gandhi that there remained a thin line that divided nationalism and xenophobia. Tagore and Gandhi had met in July 1921 at his home in Calcutta, where the two had a long and argumentative conversation about what Tagore described as the “bondage of nationalism”.In the then influential Calcutta journal, Modern Review, Tagore wrote about an international desire to “achieve the unity of man by destroying the bondage of nationalism in order to achieve the unity of man”.India, he argued, didn’t have a “real sense” of nationalism and noted that “even though from childhood I had been taught that the idolatry of Nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will gain truly their India by fighting against that education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity.”Tagore’s dismay for the fervent nationalism that had gripped India was further shaped by the first World War in 1914. Speaking at Japan after the war, he warned that “the political civilization” that was overrunning the world was “based on exclusiveness” and it is “always watchful to keep at bay the aliens or to exterminate them. It is carnivorous and cannibalistic in its tendencies, it feeds upon the resources of other peoples and tries to swallow their whole future. It is always afraid of other races achieving eminence, naming it as a peril, and tries to thwart all symptoms of greatness outside its own boundaries, forcing down races of men who are weaker, to be eternally fixed in their weakness.”Then again, writing in 1933, when Adolf Hitler had been appointed chancellor of Germany and was rapidly achieving full dictatorial power, Tagore wrote in an essay, The Changing Age, later compiled into the book, Towards Universal Man: “Germany, in which the light of Europe’s Culture was at its brightest, has torn up all civilized values — with what ease has an unspeakable devilry overtaken the entire country.”Even in his lifetime, Tagore’s criticism of nationalism didn’t make him a popular figure. Gandhi had famously commented, on being criticised by Tagore, that “the poet lives in a magnificent world of his own creation — his world of ideas”.The poet, though, was hardly unaware of the criticism that his ideas opened him up to. Writing to his friend C F Andrews in 1921, from New York, speaking critically of the non-cooperation movement led by Gandhi in India, he admitted to being “afraid” that he would “be rejected by my own people when I go back to India. My solitary cell is awaiting me in my Motherland. In their present state of mind, my countrymen will have no patience with me, who believe God to be higher than my own country”.He added, “I know such spiritual faith may not lead us to political success; but I say to myself as India had ever said, ‘Even then – what?’.” The letter was published by S Ganesan in 1924 as part of Tagore’s Letters from Abroad and was quoted by historian Ramchandra Guha in his 2009 introduction to Tagore’s Nationalism.

Rajiv Gandhi’s ‘Re 1 given-15 paise got’ remark – and its reverse trickle-down effect

The Indian Express | 2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

The Indian Express

2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

Addressing campaign rallies in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly cited Rajiv Gandhi’s famous 1985 remark as PM that, of every rupee the government spends towards welfare and poverty alleviation, only 15 paise reach the intended beneficiary.Modi’s stress on the nearly four-decade-old observation of the former PM seemed aimed at countering the Congress’s charge that there is large-scale corruption in the award of civil contracts in Karnataka, and that cutting across departments, contractors were forced to pay a 40% commission to officials in the BJP government for projects. The PM used the quote repeatedly and forcefully as proof of “corruption under Congress governments” to hit back at the party and virtually argue that the Congress has no right to talk about corruption.Rajiv made the remark in 1985 – a year after he had taken over as PM — after a visit to Odisha’s then poverty-stricken and extremely backward Kalahandi district, following shocking reports of hunger deaths and distress sale of children there.Rajiv, who was visiting Kalahandi with wife Sonia Gandhi, was said to have been stunned by the region’s backwardness and moved by the plight of the villagers, who shared with him tales of their sorrowful lives. Accompanying them was the then chief minister J B Patnaik, whose government had come under a lot of criticism over large-scale poverty — triggered by waves of droughts — in the Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK) region.Rajiv’s remark was, of course, prime fodder for Congress opponents, even if supporters say it came out of his frustration at the situation. And while it remains debatable whether his statement was backed by any on-field data or study, it was striking enough for governments as well as academicians and policymakers alike, to take note and act.In 1994, economist Kirit S Parikh wrote a paper on “Who gets how much PDS: How effectively does it reach the poor”. Among the many conclusions the detailed paper drew, is a paragraph that is quoted often: that the “cost-effectiveness of reaching the poorest 20% of households through PDS cereals is very small”.“For every rupee spent, less than 22 paise reach the poor in all states, excepting in Goa, Daman and Diu, where 28 paise reach the poor,” it said.In 1995, the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government, in consultation with Odisha, formulated a Long Term Action Plan for the KBK districts. The plan’s objectives were drought-proofing, poverty alleviation and development saturation.Then, in 2004, when the Congress returned to power after a long time as part of a UPA coalition, one of the agendas on the table of the party’s policymakers was how to plug leakages of funds earmarked for welfare schemes.In 2008, addressing a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi, Rahul Gandhi, in an attempt to draw attention to the backwardness of the Bundelkhand region, paraphrased his father’s famous remark. Referring to it, he said that the situation was much worse, and that only 5 paise out of a rupee now reached the people.A year later, in 2009, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted to “leakage” of funds, but said it was “not as big” as claimed.Around the same time, media reports quoted the then Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia as saying at a seminar that a recent Planning Commission study on PDS had found that only 16 paise out of a rupee was reaching the targeted poor. It is known that Ahluwalia and the Planning Commission were concerned over leakage in funds allocated by the government. In fact, in his post-Budget interaction in July 2009, Ahluwalia had mooted the idea of a “Budget tracking system” to plug the gaps.Finally, in 2013, the UPA II government rolled out the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, in a bid to curb leakages and ensure efficient targeting of subsidies and other welfare schemes.The first phase of the cash transfer scheme covered 43 districts. The Manmohan Singh government later expanded it to 78 more districts.In December 2014, the NDA government led by Narendra Modi expanded DBT across the country.Interestingly, Rajiv Gandhi’s 15 paise remark was even cited by the Supreme Court when it upheld the amendment to the Income Tax (IT) Act that made it compulsory for assessees to link their PAN and Aadhaar numbers. “A former prime minister of this country has gone on record to say that out of one rupee spent by the government for welfare of the downtrodden, only 15 paise thereof actually reaches those persons for whom it is meant. It cannot be doubted that with UID/Aadhaar, much of the malaise in this field can be taken care of,” a Bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said in June 2017.

Missing in Karnataka election: The cityPremium Story

The Indian Express | 2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

The Indian Express

2 hours ago | 09-05-2023 | 11:45 am

The issue of urban development carries a strange duality about its relevance in politics. On one hand, almost all election campaign material and promises of a developed country feature tall buildings, quality public spaces, and clean, lively streets indicating the indispensable role and the political nature of a prosperous urban imagination. On the other hand, in elections, citizens rarely hold governments accountable for issues of urban infrastructure. Rarely do people vote on issues such as water logging, rising rents, or lack of good streets. Most Indian cities, for example, get flooded every year, but that has rarely contributed towards anti-incumbency. Ironically, the politicians who pose against the backdrop of a developed skyline do not lose sleep over the fact that their constituency was flooded in the last monsoon.In this context, the upcoming Karnataka elections are very relevant. The state’s capital, Bengaluru, is the basket case of disastrous urban planning and the consequent insufficient infrastructure, environmental damage, and unaffordable real estate.The first urban planning policy for Bengaluru was framed in 1952 by the Bangalore Development Committee after the city grew between 1941-51 owing to the rise in public sector employment opportunities. The committee prepared an Outline Development Plan and submitted it to the government which enforced the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act in 1965 and adopted the plan in 1972. In 1976, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) was constituted to prepare a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) every 10 years.Bengaluru became the sixth-largest city in India by 1961 with a population of 1.2 million at the time and grew further in the 1970s with private manufacturing coming to the region. Through the 1980s, however, led by the emerging technology sector and then by the IT industry, Bengaluru saw exponential growth of population — from 1.2 million in 1961 to 1.6 million in 1971. The population further jumped to 2.9 million in 1981 and 4.1 million in 1991. In a (delayed) response to this growth, the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority was established in 1986.With a lot of capital and population flowing into the city, the government struggled to keep up with the demands and pressures of the urban agglomeration for two fundamental reasons. First, nobody saw the IT boom coming. In the 1970s, it was impossible to predict the rate at which the IT sector would grow thenceforth. As Bengaluru expanded, the government found itself unprepared to generate a timely policy response. Second, the deterministic and descriptive nature of urban plans could not accommodate such unpredictable scenarios. There was, to put in simpler terms, no flexibility in urban regulations to accommodate the private sector-led growth of Bengaluru.A rapidly increasing demand for floor space was met with an insufficient supply. The Floor Space Index (FSI) was not regulated to complement the city’s growth and real estate costs and rents shot up. Urban regulations could not provide allied infrastructure either, resulting in mismanaged traffic, insufficient streets, and poor water supply and sanitation services.Today, Bengaluru has a population of around 11 million and is one of the fastest growing urban agglomerations in India. It is also a severely stressed city. Housing in Bengaluru is unaffordable, the city is infamous for traffic congestion, its numerous lakes have suffered, and the city faces severe water-logging every monsoon. Public memory is short lived, but it is worth recalling that in September 2022, devastating visuals from a flooded Bengaluru were in abundance on social media. In response to the outrage, the chief minister had to promise compensation to private companies.This brings us back to the upcoming elections. Issues of urban infrastructure have not gained spotlight in the election narratives in Karnataka. A quick look at the manifestos, however, reveals that while discussing water logging does not make for sensational airtime, both the incumbent and the opposition parties understand that a manifesto completely bereft of urban issues will not be received well in the state.The BJP’s manifesto for Karnataka pays lip-service to some core issues such as water supply and drainage, ignores the problem of environmental degradation and housing costs and promises large urban infrastructure projects with a global appeal. This includes creation of multi-modal transport hubs “similar to the WTC transport hub in New York” and unified transit network “inspired by Transport for London”.The manifesto also focuses on integrating technology in the city infrastructure through apps that will help navigate traffic and public transportation in Bengaluru. The manifesto goes a bit too far in its tech-appeal and promises to install CCTVs with facial recognition capabilities — a rather problematic idea — on the streets of the city. Overall, the incumbent party’s manifesto falls short of addressing what is actually wrong with Bengaluru.The Congress’s manifesto shows more confidence and clarity. It attempts to address Bengaluru’s water supply problem with more specificity and discusses solid waste management with more depth than is expected from a campaign document. The Congress’s manifesto seems clearer on policy as well. It promises to increase FSI, provide multi-storey parking in cities, build a better street network, and regularise slums. It also promises simpler Transferable Development Rights regulations and proposes amendments to bylaws. However, the Congress too fails to touch upon the degrading state of the lakes of Bengaluru and provides no answer to the problems of traffic congestion in the city.The manifesto of a political party is, unfortunately, not a widely read document and issues of urban infrastructure rarely feature in the election season. However, the fact is urban infrastructure is the canvas of modern life and politics. Cities offer social mobility, house institutions, provide opportunities to trade and pursue prosperity and happiness. They are harbingers of civilisational values. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that voters demand better urban infrastructure and register their approval or disappointment during voting. Quality of our cities is the quality of our lives, and this relationship needs a more robust electoral articulation.Zuberi is an independent scholar and researcher of architecture and city studiesBlurb: The manifesto of a political party is, unfortunately, not a widely read document and issues of urban infrastructure rarely feature in the election season. However, the fact is urban infrastructure is the canvas of modern life and politics. Cities offer social mobility, house institutions, provide opportunities to trade and pursue prosperity and happiness. They are harbingers of civilisational values. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that voters demand better urban infrastructure and register their approval or disappointment during voting.

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