--- ratnam@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Ahluwalia, Debroy, Sharad Joshi, Liberty Institute!
> What an awesome journey for a one-time
> almost-CPI(M)-cardholder. But as Buddha said in
> Kolkata the other day, "The Left is Right in Bengal
> today."
-----------
Madhu Purnima Kishwar's book being launched is titled
'Deepening Democracy: Challenges for Governance and
Globalization in India'
This is from an article Kishwar published in Manushi
issue 135 (June-July 2003):
(MCD Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta)... adopted our
project with enthusiasm. His first challenge was to
get the proposal passed by the Standing Council of the
Municipal Corporation where he faced tremendous
opposition from corporators of all political hues.
Even when they reluctantly approved the model market
proposal, both BJP and Congress corporators made
common cause with one another in opposing the
involvement of manushi ...Mr Mehta did not at that
stage make an issue of who was to implement the scheme
and simply got the project cleared. ...Mr Mehta was
told by his own officials that he would be committing
"contempt of court" ...if he allowed the two pilot
projects to come through... Therefore, his next
challenge was to get the Supreme Court to put its
stamp of approval on the model market project. He
chose the best possible lawyers for the case and
allowed manushi to work closely with them. ...Unlike
the usual run of government lawyers, Mr Rohatagi and
Mr Sen took on this case with conviction and
enthusiasm. The petition they filed in the Supreme
Court on behalf of the MCD is an impressive landmark
in the history of governance ...Since government
officers do not have to pay anything from their
pockets for fighting court cases, they tend to harass
people no end. ...However, in this case, the MCD
petitioned the Court with the open admission that the
existing municipal policy with regard to hawking and
vending licences had been a failure ...This admission
required dexterous handling because the entire
licensing system was devised and sealed by the Supreme
Court ...To tell the mighty Supreme Court that their
system had proved a disaster is a risky affair
...Also, for a Municipal Commissioner to admit in
writing that municipal officials working under him are
abusing the system for personal gain requires real
courage and integrity ...our previous experience had
taught us that official orders could hardly be
implemented in the absence of local political
support... in order to blunt the hostility of the
local Congress Corporator of Sewa Nagar, we decided to
get in touch with the Delhi Pradesh Congress
President, Subhash Sharma, whom I had known since my
student union days... his response was: "This is the
first time my sister has asked me for anything. Take
it that this will be done." ...Within three days, he
arranged for me to meet the Chairman of the Standing
Committee, Mr. Ram Babu Sharma, who had all this time
serious misgivings about of our pilot project. But
once he was told that Subhash Sharma had adopted it,
Ram Babu also assumed a brotherly role... during our
first meeting, Ram Babu openly declared : "Behenji, we
are very clear on this. When we don't want to do
something we know how to obstruct it, even if orders
come from the Supreme Court or the Party High Command.
At such times, there is no point citing rules and
court orders to us. But when we want to do something,
we put aside all rule books and just go ahead and do
it, Now that we have accepted you as our sister and
you have come to seek our help, we will make sure it
works..." ...it is worth noting that when the BJP was
in power at Sewa Nagar before the Congress, we had
approached their corporators as well. But despite all
our efforts we failed to convince them into supporting
the avowed policy of their very own Prime Minister..."
etc etc.
-----
PS:
nearly everything MCD is making news for doing
nowadays is based on empowerment by court orders in
NGO PIL - byelaw reform, farmhouse misuse milking,
auctioning / donating bovines, heritage / village
interventions, etc, are not flowing from MCD Act
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