What is missing in most manifestos is a coherent and comprehensive vision backed by a workable strategy to address the challenges that India’s growing urban spaces face.
Democratic politics in India has an obsessive pro-rural bias. To paraphrase a well-known analyst, politicians in India “get the votes in the village and use that power to rule and plunder the cities”. For instance, 2018 was entirely dominated by issues and events related to rural distress, farmer’s resentment and falling rural income leading to the announcement of litany of big tickets schemes and soaps for the countryside. With an eye on general elections, governments at the Centre and state levels were seen fiercely competing to come out with attractive schemes to woo the crucial rural constituencies. This should not come as a surprise. Numbers play a crucial role in democracies. While there are 377 million people (roughly one-third of population) in cities and town (as per 2011 Census), it lacks the comparative advantage of the rural India. For instance, out of 543 Lok Sabha seats, only 18% of the electorate and around 90 constituencies can be called truly urban.
Notwithstanding its relatively weaker position, urban constituencies continue to play a key role, particularly in tightly fought elections. Additionally, there are a handful of states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab that have a significant urban population which can determine the fate of government formation at the Central as well as state levels. The biggest drawer of urban Lok Sabha seats are the two rival national parties: the BJP and the Congress, which shared more than 70% of the urban seats in 2009 and 2014 polls. For example, out of the 282 seats that BJP won in 2014 polls, cities contributed a record 54 seats to the party’s kitty, as opposed to Congress which won only 6 seats. However, the story was different in 2009 where the Congress bagged 37 seats while the BJP could only win 24 urban seats. Thus, one of the key reasons for the Congress’s dismal performance in 2014 was its poor turnout in the urban seats.
This seems to have generated interest among both the national parties in the ongoing general elections. The clearest proof is the manifestos of major political parties that have devoted a great deal of space for the urban electorate. For starters, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had made the most of its Smart Cities Mission (SCM) in 2014 polls, has come out with plan to set up 5 regional Centres of Excellence on urban governance issues. These institutions intend to help states and urban local bodies enhance their capacities and effectiveness. Further, the BJP’s manifesto proposes to launch the Urban Mobility Mission, something similar to SCM that would promote technology-based mobility solutions and facilitate single mobility cards to be used across multiple transportation modes. Significantly, the ruling party promises to make public transportation and public spaces safe for women, children and other vulnerable populations.
Yet, the most impressive manifesto for urban electorate comes from the Congress party. The main opposition offers to take up the implementation of the 74th Constitution (Amendment) Act effectively. It also proposes to bring in the long-standing demand of having a mayoral system in India. The party wants to genuinely empower the Mayor’s office (directly elected Mayor with fixed five years tenure) to improve the lives of urban netizens. Further, the Congress party promises to take up issues affecting the urban poor such as zero-eviction policy and anchoring a comprehensive slum upgradation programme to cover basic public services such as electricity, water, sanitation amongst others to all to residents in urban areas. The party wants to institutionalise the concept of night shelters for the homeless in cities and implement the Right to Housing for the urban poor.
As expected, all major parties have come out with their plans to tackle the menace of air pollution. According many recent reports, poor air quality affects more than two-thirds of the population and India has an inglorious record of having 14 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world. The ruling BJP has offered a series of measures including the proposal to upgrade the existing National Clean Air Programme into a Mission with focus on 102 most polluted cities. Calling air pollution as national public health emergency, the Congress has proposed to overhaul the existing Clean Air programme. The Congress has stated that if it comes to power, the party would establish a new body called Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to ensure strict implementation of environmental standards. Interestingly, the Congress promises to confer legal and financial powers upon Panchayats and Municipalities, to help them coordinate with respective state governments and ensure better management of environment and related issues.
Yet, the most comprehensive coverage on air pollution and rightly so has come from the manifesto of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The insurgent party that rules India’s national capital has proposed a series of measures particularly promoting cleaner public transportation including electric buses, vacuum cleaning of roads and pavements, massive plantation of trees among others to fight air pollution. Claiming to have introduced a "green budget" last year, AAP’s manifesto promises to usher a green economy that would tackle pollution (all forms) head on. In short, air pollution and associated issues have found adequate recognition amongst all major parties including the Left.
To sum up, all major national parties particularly the BJP and the Congress have captured some of the pressing urban issues affecting more than one-third of our electorates. From promoting urban mobility, housing for all, clean air mission to setting up an empowered mayoral system, nearly all major issues have found glowing mentions in the party manifestos. Some parties like AAP have offered a realistic roadmap to realising the promises made in the said party manifestos.
However, this is nothing new. Many of today’s pressing issues including urban mobility, multiple means of transportation, housing for all, slum free India, strengthening of urban governance systems and financing urban bodies were mentioned during previous general elections as well. The only difference this time is that these have been re-named and packaged in more appealing shapes and forms.
What is missing in most manifestos (although the Congress party does better) is a coherent and comprehensive vision backed by a workable strategy to address the challenges that India’s growing urban spaces face. A case in point is the ruling party’s smart cities mission. The BJP, that party that had generated substantial political capital out of its policy to create 100 smart cities and spent substantial resources in its publicity has not even mentioned the same in its 2019 election manifestos. Additionally, cities are missing substantial political and administrative leadership. Many cities not only lack leadership but also do not have the adequate resources and capacity needed to fight complex challenges of environmental degradation including air pollution. Exempting Congress, no other party has outlined anything substantial to empower the existing Mayoral system that can genuinely empower cities and their governance narratives. As global evidence suggests, an empowered mayoral system is a pre-condition to improved urban governance. Sadly, not only do Indian cities not have the mayoral system and but the issue has also failed to garner significant attention during the 2019 electoral campaign.
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Niranjan Sahoo, PhD, is a Senior Fellow with ORF’s Governance and Politics Initiative. With years of expertise in governance and public policy, he now anchors ...
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