For India's sake, Garden City has to bloom again

Garden city loses bloom
India has a stake in Bangalore. So don’t let this city go down the tube

Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Indian Express

When a city that has become the visible icon of a globalised India appears to have ground to a standstill, its pot-holed roads choked by traffic jams, its administrators gripped by lethargy, its infrastructural projects — including arterial roads and an international airport — in a limbo, it is cause for national concern. This newspaper has made a serious effort to provide a glimpse into the malaise that is threatening to rob Bangalore of its future in its on-going series, ‘Bangalore crumbling’. Former prime minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, may see dark political conspiracies behind such an effort, even as Karnataka chief minister, Dharam Singh, tries to fob off all inquiries with the reassuring words, “Madtaiddivi, madtaiddivi (we are doing it, we are doing it)”. But even eight months after coming to power, his government has shown little evidence of doing anything to rescue this city from the hole it has fallen into. In fact quite to the contrary.

Those who have voiced concern over this city’s fate are not occasional urban commentators or the idle rich. They represent the cream of Indian industry, the country’s best known creators of wealth. They are concerned because they are committed to the city and have, through their efforts, imparted to it an international resonance. They believe that if they do not speak up today, there may not be a city to speak for tomorrow, as foreign investment and indigenous talent goes in search of other locations. If that happens, the Karnataka chief minister should remember, it is not these men and women who will be affected — they can always relocate their businesses elsewhere — but the people of the state. A dynamic Bangalore works as a magnet of growth, not just for itself but the entire state.

There are few things that exemplify our successes and failures better than the condition of our cities. Urban India produces close to 70 per cent of India’s GDP, yet their quality of life remains abysmal. Close to one-third of India already lives in urban centres, and it is estimated that the rate of migration will make more than half of India urban by 2025. Yet the challenges posed by urbanisation are proving to be the most neglected and most intractable. Cities are meant to infuse life and energy in all aspects of our lives. Ours are designed to take life and vibrancy out of our existence, both figuratively and literally. Today Bangalore, which should have been synonymous with a resurgent urban growth, has come to be identified with urban decay in some of its worst manifestations. If the Garden City is to bloom again — and we hope for Karnataka’s and India’s sake it does — it would need extraordinary attention and commitment in the days ahead.