The new assertive Bangalorean?

NO MORE, WE WANT ACTION, WANT IT NOW
Bangaloreans are leaving comfortable homes and offices and taking to the streets in protest
Times of India

WHATEVER happened to the legendary easygoing Bangalorean? Has he snapped out of his laidback ways and become militant? Earlier, if he saw a pothole, he walked unconcernedly around it. But now his personality has taken on activist overtones and he’s decided he can’t be ignored any more.
Consider his recent participation in local protests.

First, residents of Vignananagar and around literally took to the streets to protest against the bad roads. Then residents of Bannerghatta Road joined hands with students from IIMB to voice their woes. Later, it was the turn of Sarjapur Road residents, followed by those from Whitefield. What does it show?

Says Janaagraha founder Ramesh Ramanathan, “It shows that the Bangalorean is beginning to recognise that there are civic problems and that he has to get involved in asking that they be solved.” In other words, “He’s recognised that one has control over one’s home, one has control over one’s work, but everything in between is broken, meaning the infrastructure. If you want quality of life, you realise that a lot of it is driven by public infrastructure.” Hence the change in him.

Samuel Paul, chairman, Public Affairs Centre, says, “Governments may come and go, but it’s the citizens who pay taxes, we are the sufferers or the gainers. The recent protests may start off a series of them. Industrialists have clout — they can ask for change and get it — but what about the ordinary citizen?”

He sees it as a “spontaneous protest against what people see as a
deterioration of facilities.” He finds it surprising that the very same agencies like the BCC, which had scored high on services according to the PAC report cards, has fallen so low and so quickly since last year. “Only a year ago, when SM Krishna was in power, the roads were better, the heads of agencies were working. The government now in power is not sending the right signals, whether about the BATF or anything else, so the agencies are taking it easy. There’s no sense of direction or accountability.” But the Bangalorean is not interested in the whys of the decline. He wants quality of life.

GK Karanth, head, sociology, Institute for Economic and Social Change, says it’s not that the Bangalorean is not lazy, it’s only that he cannot stomach any more of the lazy responses of corporators to his problems. He adds, “What is the social background of most corporators anyway? We are led by people who are incompetent. For most, becoming a corporator is a step up to leading a public life.”

And the Bangalorean knows it and has decided he will have none of it.