Imagine this scenario: Lok Sabha polls cancelled and an unelected and unconstitutional force is taking over the running of the country, or maybe extended President’s Rule is imposed on handpicked states without much explanation. Imagine the rage and outpourings from political parties, the intelligentsia, the courts and perhaps even from you and me who are just trying to eke out a living. Now look closer home: our Namma Bengaluru. Observe the deafening silence to the systematic decimation of democracy at our own doorsteps.
The city council (the democratically-elected councillors who make up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) who are actually supposed to run the city) has been absent for four years. Even worse, this is the second time in about a dozen years that this has happened. Depressingly, this means that it has nothing to do with the flavour of the political party in power in the state. Empirical data clearly shows that there is no intention whatsoever to devolve power and governance to the city level by any political party.
