Turn a blind eye. Don’t decide. Create mess. Hope for the best.

I have finally figured out how we in India have become experts at creating a mess. The title of this blog says it all. I will use two examples to explain what I mean. One example is that of the unauthorised construction and commercialization in Delhi and the sealing drive mess. The other is the example of illegal mining and construction activities around the Aravalli Hills area in Faridabad and Gurgaon.

We in India seems to patented the innovative “5-steps of creating a mess.” Let us discuss this 5-step process which is as follows:

1. Innovation

The starting point of all the mess created in this country is, believe it or not, innovation. Someone comes up with an idea to make money by violating some provision of the law. I am quite sure that some of these innovative ideas are thought of by the government officials themselves. Some of these innovative ideas as they relate to our examples are building extra floors, covering 100% of the allotted area, illegal mining as well as construction on forest land.

2. Establish a partnership to exploit the potential of the idea

If a member of the public comes up with the idea, he needs government approval and protection which is easy to achieve as corruption in government is the accepted norm. If the government official comes up with the innovative idea, he finds a crooked businessman to exploit the potential. A healthy partnership is formed to start a mess which ultimately becomes difficult to solve. Do you think illegal construction is possible without the connivance of MCD. For instance, one of the illegally constructed building in right next to the MCD office in Lajpat Nagar.

3. Concept of competition takes over

In India, we understand the universal concept of competition better than most. Now when people someone making money through illegal means, others join in. Now if someone sees his neighbour building an extra floor, he also does it. The government official thinks of “building scale” (another management concept) and process of violation of law picks up speed. It becomes big money enterprise with powerful people involved in it.

4. Delay in Court Decisions

We still have some law abiding people in this country and some of them knock on the doors of courts to curtail the violation of law. But we all know what happens. For some reason or the other, either a stay is granted or no decision is taken. For instance, the legal case based on which the Supreme Court took decision of sealing all illegal commercial activities was filed some 20 years back. I was not surprised to hear that legal case with respect to mining and construction activities in the Aravalli Hills area is nearly 14 years old. In fact, to some extent this gives perceived legality to the illegal activity and people become more bold in violating the law. For instance, I had heard that a shop in Greater Kailash had actually extended his basement under the government land, that is, the pedestrian corridor.

5. Everybody turns a blind eye

A stage comes when the vioaltion of law becomes an accepted practice. Illegal construction, extra floors, mining and construction in Aravalli Hills area all became acceptable. Even buying and selling of properties constructed illegally or in illegal areas is acceptable. This is what is having is Aravalli Hills.

The situation becomes so bad that even Court decisions are not obeyed. The illegality becomes a high stakes game. Powerful people have a stake in the outcome. As such, even a court order is disobeyed. Do you think that illegal construction is not going on in Delhi? I have read in newspapers that illegal mining was going on in Aravalli Hills inspite of a court order against it. You see the people who will implement the court order are the very same people who have a big stake in the continuation of the illegal activity. For instance, the court orders the MCD to stop illegal construction but it is the MCD which allows the illegal construction to go on.

6. Hope for the best

Finally, when the courts finally decide to take strict action after years of violation of law, the situation has become so complicated that it is not easy for the courts to take a decision and get it implemented. By this time, practically everyone who is, knowingly of unknowingly, a stakeholder in the illegal activity does not want the illegal activity to stop. Sometimes compromises are made and at other times the decision is put in the cold storage.

Look at the illegal construction and commercial activity mess in Delhi. It is still not been resolved completely as the matter is still in court. If certain roads have been declared commercial then the building plans should also be approved as commercial but the law does not permit the same. So people are getting residential plans approved and then making changes to the buildings to make it more suitable for commercial activity. MCD, of course, makes hay in every situation.

The illegal construction was so rampant that no one can think of demolishing all the illegal construction. You would put half the population of Delhi on roads. We can’t do that and I also agree with such a decision. It is also not a good decision for a resource scarce country like ours. How can we destroy thousands of dwelling places when a large number of the people do not have a proper home. The same questions will be raised in the case of illegal construction in the Aravalli Hills area.

7. Don’t hold the government officials responsible for the mess

You will see that practically every time it is the general public which gets the wrong end of the stick in all such cases. They are the ones who lose financially. The people who bought flats in Delhi from builders including those on the illegal 3rd and 4th floors. Did anything happen to the cops and the MCD department officials who are responsible for maintaining the law? Nothing. In fact, if you remember, MCD official even made money during the sealing and the desealing process. In fact, it was reported in Times of India on March 20, 2009 that MCD deputy commissioner Ashok Kumar was arrested for asking for a huge bribe to approve desealing of a Najafgarh property of Raghubir Singh. It was also alleged by some that he was connected to the Congress Party and an aspirant to contest the elections. Electing an MCD official is the last thing that India needs.

I hope you can all see the mess we have created by accepting a violation of law as “Chalta Hai.” The moral of the story is maintain law and order and punish those who break the law. Second, hold all the culprits responsible including government officials.

Just a day or two before, I had read a TOI editorial that made the case for Varun Gandhi’s should be let off easy for his hate speech. The arugument given was that others have gotten away with much worse. This is exactly the prescription which is the starting point of a mess. It would create a precedent. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that making a hate speech and doling out cash is illegal. Varun Gandhi should have known and he should be barred against contesting elections. So should others like Maneka Gandhi, Govinda and Mulayam Singh Yadav who were caught doling out cash. It should be made clear that violation of law will not be tolerated.

Avinash Narula