KAUN GUESS SLUMDOG?

You must have guessed by now the meaning of the title…(those readers who do not know Hindi “kaun” means ‘who’). ‘Kaun Guess’ is a play on ‘Congress’ which went overboard yesterday in claiming credit for the movie getting eight Oscars. I think they definitely have a right to take credit…..because without their active connivance the movie would not have been possible…..in sixty two years post independence of ruling the state (except for a brief period of 5 years of Shiv Sena rule), they have actively connived in perpetuating the slums and helping them grow in Mumbai. Mumbai should appropriately be re-named Slumbai! Just imagine if the Congress had actually governed we would never have had slums…..so no movie would have been made…..so no Oscar would have been awarded……so Kaun guess karo Slumdog…. I bet you guessed right!! But I cannot give you a million dollars for the right guess….so sorry.

Slums in Mumbai are a huge vote bank….the electoral rolls get updated…..most of the middle class do not vote…..so these slum dwellers come in handy for some bogus voting. In Vakola/Santa Cruz East, a whole lot of new slums have come up on airport land. All these slums have to be removed…..but the politicians say free housing has to be given. It is all a huge racket promoted by a north Indian politician who gets elected from that constituency. Who pays for the free houses….the poor honest tax payer…..who gets the houses…if you think the slum dweller actually gets it, you have another think coming! Maybe in a few cases it does go to the slum dweller, in reality it goes to one of the hundreds of proxies of the politicians, MP’s, MLA’s who either rent these flats or sell them.

Most of these slum dwellers come back to occupy the same land and the cycle repeats itself. As per the Supreme Court order for Mumbai the first cut off for giving free housing was 1995, revised later to 2000 and now the politicians want it revised to 2005. Granted, in a democracy you cannot stop people from migrating from one state to another in search of a livelihood, but does that mean these migrants can be allowed to occupy public spaces. No wonder Mumbai is nothing but a big slum….Google Earth graphically displays the area covered by slums. It is more than half of Mumbai….take a look if you haven’t so far!

Go to any other metro and see for yourself whether such rampant slumming is allowed. You won’t find any in Bangalore and Chennai for sure. If at all they are there they will be there in some corner - I have traveled to both cities and so far not seen slums of the kind available in Mumbai. So what is special about Mumbai – is it the name which attracts slums – or is it politicians from outside the state who get elected from here who want to send the city into the dark ages. Why does it not happen in the other metros? Someone somewhere has to draw the line. Mumbai contributes a huge sum to the ex-chequer by way of taxes. Mumbai does not get anything in return for developing infrastructure – its lot is inadequate power, shoddy roads, pollution of all kinds and no balls to set it right. It is high time that the tax paying citizen hits the streets and stops paying taxes, be it property tax, water tax, profession tax, sales tax, excise duty, service tax or income tax. If we suspend paying taxes for a year, we will have the government begging for taxes – by using coercion how many people will they put in jail – Industry and the tax paying citizen should put their foot down and demand that Mumbai gets its fair share of funds for development.
Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra, Jai Mumbai!