Urban Evangelists

Urban Evangelists

Are they really "converting" men at key places? Is it a real threat
that they may "takeover" Bangalore? Who are they? What language do
they speak? What do they do? Where did they come from?

SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU, Outlook

The conversation post-lunch, the other day, veered around how 'urban
evangelists' were trying to "takeover" Bangalore. I offered a small
correction by saying that they
have repeatedly tried to "takeover" the city since circa 2000 AD, but
have somewhat failed. A friend at the table cautioned me not to be so
optimistic after all. The way things are moving, he said, they may
actually be in-charge in the near future. They are converting men at
key places, he warned. It is not important to know how we went about
sticking to our positions in the debate, as much as to profile the
ones we had, with incredible ease, labelled as 'urban evangelists' .

So who are these urban evangelists? What language do they speak? What
do they do? Where did they come from? The answers to these questions
cannot be precise, but let's hazard a rough construction of their
persona. These are people who have a very clinical and
economically- viable, but acultural and ahistorical idea of an urban
space. For them the city should naturally homogenise, individualise
and universalise itself. Essentially, the city for them is a place
where you work. And every infrastructure you build should help you to
work more and earn more. So you need big airports, metro rail, malls,
expressways etc. This idea is so much different from living and living
well.

These urban evangelists are an established creed abroad and are fast
spreading across India. But it is important to understand them in the
context of Bangalore
because they have been delivering doomsday messages about the imminent
collapse of the city's 'infrastructure' on national television, on
frontpages of friendly English newspapers, at five-star seminar halls
and even at Page 3 parties. Their voice has now reached a shrill pitch
because the road that leads to the new airport at Devanahalli, is not
exactly clutter-free. Earlier they had raised an alarm when the roads
to the Electronic City and the software parks were narrow and bouncy.
Bangalore has crossed their earlier date of doom, but then there is a
new date to grapple with: March 30 is the day when the new
international airport near Devanahalli will be inaugurated. Airplanes
will land and take off, but will people be able to catch the flights
is the panic question that these evangelists have spread in the city.

Their presumably well-intentioned panic comes with an impractical
solution. They have been arguing for keeping the old airport as well,
though it is in the diagonally opposite direction. They don't mind
reneging the contract that the government has entered into with the
European consortium building the new airport to shutdown
the old one. They have also been cribbing about the pre-determined
user fees that the new airport would be charging for both domestic and
international passengers. These arguments are puzzling, given the fact
that they come from those who otherwise support the PPP-schemes (the
new airport is one); press for sound revenue models and swear by the
sanctity of a contract. Expanding the scope of their arguments, they
have also raised technical issues related to the ability of the new
airport to handle growing traffic with just one runway.

The blogs with a focus on the city, as usual, have picked up these
arguments and asked one consuming question: Why didn't these people,
who are known to have a futuristic pair of eyes, raise these arguments
earlier? Has one of those ancient,
despicable Indian ailments affected these people too, who not long ago
were fresh, dreamy-eyed 'returnees' from prosperous Western cities?
The other rather exaggerated suspicion on blogs is that these people
may be taking up the cause of those who 'inhabit' the Electronics City
and the international tech park in Whitefield, situated far away from
the new airport.In essence, it is made out to be a battle between
South Bangalore, with a predominantly IT crowd (Jayanagar,
Koramangala, BTM Layout, J.P. Nagar, Sarjapura) and North Bangalore,
where the new airport is located.

The government has no doubt woken up late to clear the clutter on the
roads that lead to the new airport. But, the commissioner of the
city's municipal corporation,
Dr. S. Subramanya, has come up with innovative ideas like 'magic box'
underpasses and overpasses that can be installed in less than a
month's time and at less than ten per cent of the traditional costs.
When was the last time you heard a government servant thinking lateral
and taking a risk? Instead of fine-tuning these ideas and offering
constructive support, why are the 'evangelists' throwing the whole
thing out of gear? Is it primarily because they shoot with borrowed expertise?

Perhaps, the 'doubt' about 'urban evangelists' on the blogs would have
been less had they even occasionally spoken about the crowded central
bus-stand, where ordinary citizens fear being run over by speeding
buses; the approach road to the railway station; the congestion on
Balepet, Tharugpet, Fort Area, City Market, Magadi Road and Avenue
Road. Perhaps they never use the bus-stand or the railway station and
their cars never cross the areas mentioned above, but that too is
Bangalore. Not the outskirts, but the nerve-centre. They would surely
agree that building Bangalore's infrastructure is not simply about
building elevated roads, ring roads and six-lane expressways. They
may, for all we know, be concerned about all these issues, but in the
public eye they are never associated with these concerns and this
perception does not augur well for them.

I recently drove down to the site of the new airport and the one thing
that surprised me was the number of houses, government buildings,
farms, small factories,
roadside automobile workshops, petty shops etc. that have been ripped
and nudged out by earth-moving equipment to build the six-lane
expressway to the new airport. The exposed bedrooms and bathrooms of
what were once homes seemed to be eagerly waiting to tease the first
riders to the airport on March 30. For a moment, I wondered if a
bombed road in Bush's 'shock and awe' Iraq would have a similar eerie
feel. It is enormously difficult to build homes and livelihoods, but
why have these displaced people never become news in our city? Where
have they gone? Something similar will soon happen with the route
being carved out for the Metro rail. Development has always posed
difficult questions and here again they were lining up to haunt.
Should or shouldn't the 'evangelists' weave these people into their
power-point presentations?

Does this serious problem of inclusion arise because these
'evangelists' think they are not shackled by 'ideology' and are
'apolitical, ' except of course when it comes to advising governments
that can converse with them in English. But can simple utilitarian
pragmatism create the inclusiveness that today's India badly needs,
not just between the rural and the urban, but also to bridge the
growing fissures within our cities