Web Only Feature

RISE AND RISE

That is the only way perhaps to sum up the second-term victory of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, writes India Today's Sayantan Chakravarty. Read the full report.

May be it is too much to suggest that grace rests on her slender, diminutive frame like a lotus on a pond. But grace, coupled with a quiet, unhurried dignity brought Sheila Dikshit victory in the Delhi Assembly elections. That is the kind of popular image that saved the Congress a 0-4 knockout at the recent hustings, allowing, perhaps, the score-line to read a slightly more respectable 1-3.

Indeed, the talk of the town in Delhi this past week has centred around the rise and rise of Sheila Dikshit, the first chief minister of Delhi to win a second term in the assembly. Phone calls, red and white flower bouquets, and neatly packaged sweet boxes wrapped in marigold poured in as even her rivals joined the admiration club to acknowledge her clear victory.

It is 8.45 in the morning, a nippy December Sunday, less than 72 hours after Delhi's First Lady has been declared winner from the Gole Market constituency (where voters included the Indian President and prime minister) by beating the BJP's Poonam Azad. At her chief ministerial bungalow on Purana Qila Road opposite the busy Pragati Maidan exhibition complex, she is facing over a hundred Congress workers, admonishing them on how they sabotaged some Congress assembly seats in east and west Delhi. She is hurt, but her voice and tone will not betray her.

All she is letting them know is that the Congress could have fared far better but for the uncalled machinations of these "workers". Firmly, yet gently, the point is made: there is no question of resting on laurels. She might have won herself a second term and brought cheer to an otherwise gloomy Congress camp but she says that given her Government's image, cultivated well over five years, the party should have done better than the 47 (out of the possible 70) seats at the polls.

If it is an impressive figure, she will not admit it. She tells them that the party should have at least fared as well as last time (52 seats in 1998). The men fall silent as she lets them know that she will not tolerate infighting when it is at the cost of the Congress. It's a voice of a captain who knows a few members of the team have strayed into silly match-fixing.

Fifteen minutes later, these same men, suitably admonished, are now singing in chorus, "Sonia Gandhi zindabad, Sheila Dikshit zindabad". But Dikshit will not allow them to mass around in sycophantic fervour, her points have been made well, even the strong posse of policemen gets the drift. Slowly the flock is herded away. "I am happy, but I do not wish to give the impression that winning the elections is everything. We could have done better," she tells INDIA TODAY. Then she spells out her larger goal. "Winning is very important but far more significant will be to give Indians one of the world's most beautiful capital cities." That is her agenda.

Dikshit is the only one in whose case the opinion poll predictions matched her authoritative victory on the ground. The reasons are several, and she explains them. The single most significant factor for Delhi to be nominated the city that will host the prestigious Commonwealth Games of 2010, she tells you, is the ambient air quality, followed, of course, by improved infrastructure.

CNG was a possibility that seemed remote at one stage, but tough-line administration made a difference, forcing Delhi's ever-expanding bus population and tricky metered auto-rickshaws to fall in line. The administration was compelling, making Dikshit hint that the youthful minister in-charge of transport, Ajay Maken (one of the third-time elected MLAs who is sure to retain a cabinet berth), played his part well. The harder they tried to hold Delhi's travelling public to ransom, the harder Sheila Dikshit and Co. made life for them. In the end, under the supervision of the Supreme Court, CNG raised the ambient air quality to a new level; Delhi no longer has to suffer the tag of being one of the world's three most polluted capital cities.

Close to 40 new flyovers in the last five years have helped, but traffic bottlenecks still need to be taken care of. Dikshit knows that the Metro, running only in a small corridor, and touching the lives of only a few million people (Delhi hosts about 18 million during the day), must be taken to other parts of the city, and fast. "Before I moved in to Delhi politics, Metro was confined to the files, and restricted to discussions in committee meetings. We put it on track, on time, by clearing all administrative bottlenecks." It is a statement that the Vajpayee Government may not agree with entirely but for the moment it seems that the Metro did spread its appeal among a section of Delhi's voters. Sixteen of East Delhi's 20 assembly seats went to the Congress, this is the Lok Sabha constituency that has been the chief beneficiary of the Metro. Also four of the five assembly constituencies of Delhi Sadar elected Congressmen to the assembly, it is yet another segment that has benefited immensely from the Metro. By the time the Commonwealth Games take place, Dikshit hopes that the Metro would make a difference to the lives of many more millions, and would be Delhi's top showpiece project.

Modernity beyond infrastructure, that is Dikshit's firm belief. Quietly, but surely, she won over several of her dissenting leaders, made them accept the fact that Delhi could do with more pubs. They would enable men and women to have a drink or two with dignity, in any case prohibition had never helped any state. The result of her convincing arguments are stark. In the last three years Delhi's marketplaces are dotted by swank restro-bars, far more affordable than the expensive star hotel bars of the past. Nobody is complaining, and slowly, pub-culture is descending on the city. "But we are moving cautiously, any excess, misuse of licence will be dealt with firmly," Dikshit warns.

Two more complexes of the Dilli Haat (they have stalls from most Indian states) variety are on the anvil, these for Dikshit will be keeping in tune with Delhi's pan-India image. Her Government is raising a cultural hotspot on the lines of India International Centre in east Delhi, and says that she wants entertainment to become more easily accessible to the citizen who at the end of the day essentially wishes to unwind. So expect more modern, multiplex cinema complexes, and the cultural czars to put on more roadshows and theatres in the future.

A human development report for Delhi--the first of its kind for any city in the world--is expected to be complete in eight months time. A body of experts is at work, trying to gauge the exact requirements of Delhi's different income sections, and what it would take to improve the quality of life. "At the moment I am trying to see that even the casual labourer has something to look forward to at the end of the day. The gaps between those who have, and those who haven't must not be allowed to widen any more."

Noble words, only if Dikshit could now put them into practice. For that she would require all the cooperation of the Delhi Development Authority(DDA)--at present it is not within the control of her Government. The DDA decides on all issues of housing, planning, and zoning regulations.

Dikshit wants to explore possibilities of providing low-cost, one-room
tenements to the jhuggi dweller who shells out Rs 1,200 a month as rent. Twenty lakh people, that way, could look forward to concrete shelters over their heads. But the DDA must give its consent. Also, Dikshit wants to take away the uncertainty that hangs over the 20 lakh denizens who live in unauthorized colonies. "No Government can afford to mow down thousands of unauthorized structures. We have to regularize them one day, and stop the sway of the land mafias." For that, once again, the Centre must grant its consent. It is an issue that has remained unresolved for over 10 years.

Dikshit hopes that it will not remain that way for very long. For
meeting all her goals, for delivering better to the people of Delhi, her electorate, for improved governance, including the original concept of bhagidari that she conceived, Dikshit needs a team that will back her well. Apart from loyalist Maken, there are other third-time winners who will most likely remain in the Cabinet. They are health minister A.K. Walia, education minister R.K. Chauhan and development minister Haroon Yusuf. Two seats have fallen vacant, one minister Deep Chand Bandhu died, another M.S. Saathi lost.

The one area where Dikshit has improved her position has been in getting candidates of her choice. Most of them won. To that extent, the credibility of the old guard of Delhi in the Congress, including Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, stands vastly eroded. Most of their candidates lost. By winning convincingly, Dikshit has also silenced those who thought Delhi's real chief ministerial material was Chaudhary Prem Singh, the state Congress chief who has not lost an election since 1958.

And the one man who could possibly have created some dent in the Dikshit camp also stands silenced; Subhash Chopra, the former Delhi Congress chief now occupies the chair of assembly Speaker, and is expected to behave in a fashion which must be exemplary. As the men she has admonished at her official residence that Sunday slowly moves out of sight, another huge crowd surges towards Dikshit. They have come to garland their leader, shout slogans of a great victory, but they must wait. Dikshit has just managed a quick breakfast with her son and six-year-old grand daughter Tara, and is rushing away for a Congress Working Committee meet. There she and a few others will decide on the fate of a senior Congress leader who has been caught on tape, trying to bribe. Dikshit may have won, but the Congress is paying.

BUSINESS TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | SMART INC.
MUSIC TODAY | ART TODAY | THE NEWSPAPER TODAY | SYNDICATIONS TODAY

Write to us | Subscriptions | Advertise with us
© Living Media India Ltd