Mumbai Voter Is Not Too Keen

Manifestos have nothing to do with elections. I do not read or follow them.

-Subodh Thakkar, grocery shop owner in Vikhroli in Mumbai North-East.

I have not seen my MP all these months in my constituency. He comes only during the elections, asking for votes.

- L S Krishnan, middle-class voter in Fort Market of Mumbai south.

We get water barely for four hours, twice a week.

- Vimalabai, slum dweller in Jogeshwari, Mumbai North.

The less said the better. But for a chunk of the educated section in the countrys economic megapolis, an enlightened voter is fast becoming a contradiction. A member of Parliament may as well become a panchayat member, if the peoples expectations, which range from electricity/water connection or job placement to a mere audience, are to be met.

 

The voters concerns in Mumbai range from small demands to problems like eviction, law and order and the business climate. Not much has changed since the 1996 elections, except the alliance between the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Republican Party of India. One seat where this changes equations is Mumbai North-east where senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan is pitted against Gurudas Kamat of the Congress.

M M Mehendale, once a modest and now a rather down-and-out stock sub-broker in Mumbai North-East, is an ardent BJP supporter. He is disappointed with the partys talk of a near-permit raj and protectionistic policies, but shall not necessarily swing his vote.

It is probably the BJP that I shall go for, purely because there is no other alternative. Actually, the choice is between the devil and the deep sea. What is worrying is the manifesto which borders on fascism the Ram temple and the nuclear option, said a jet-setting employee in a foreign fund which is on the verge of closing its operations in India.

The BJPs Swadeshi projection does not provoke any sympathies in spite of his precarious employment position. It is a question of the survival of the fittest. Controls create an artificial market. Even an exit policy is welcome, as far as I am concerned, he says.

What is reality for the young foreign fund employee is just (yet) a fear for Anant Pawar, a mill hand in Shri Ram Mills in central Mumbai. It is only a matter of time when our mill lands are sold off and commercial complexes come up here. The entire face of Mumbai will change in few years. Do not be shocked if you do not see the mill plant or this chawl (one-room tenement) building overnight. Such are the government policies with regard to sick units and unattractive looking structures in these times of foreign investment, Pawar says.

He is set to come round full circle from the Congress, Janata Dal, Shiv Sena, and back to the Congress. He shrugs: I suppose the politicians do it (party hopping) for the same sake survival. Well aware that it was the Congress which opened up the economy, Pawar says: I am willing to take a chance again with the Congress under which I never felt threatened about eviction from either my livelihood or my house.

The spectre of eviction has not disappeared since the rumoured murder of a chawl resident who refused to move out on the alleged express orders from Sena youth leader and Bal Thackerays nephew, Raj.

For Subodh Thakkar, who runs a kirana (grocery), criminalisation is very much the issue. Extortion is a reality in Mumbai. It keeps worsening by the day. It is not like in Hindi movies where somebody comes with a knife and demands money. It is very subtle and you cannot refuse a polite request.

He cares little for the BJPs promise to bring the Bhagidari (the unincorporated) sector into the social security and financial credit net.

It may be tailormade for traders who have anyway been with the BJP. When the party itself does not take it seriously why should I, Thakkar remarks.