Soon after coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a grand announcement of setting up 100 new smart cities in the country. Later, the ministry of urban development has prepared a draft concept note on the smart city scheme. The government had announced a plan to develop 100 smart cities to provide better amenities in urban areas. The 100 smart cities will include all state capitals and union territories. It will also comprise 44 cities in the population range of 1-4 million people, nine satellite cities with a population of 4 million or more, 10 cities that are of religious and tourist importance and 20 cities in the 0.5 to 1 million population range.
India is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate, so much which estimates suggest nearly 600 million of Indians will be living in cities by 2030, up from 290 million as reported in the 2001 census. It is clear that Prime Minister wants to take the living standard for big cities to a new level where 24X7 utility services becomes an essential part of public service delivery mechanism. High quality infrastructure and technology based governance will be provided to the citizens.
The whole idea looks good for India as it will change the face of country in global market. But there are many other aspects too, which requires lot of brain storming. The very basic requirement to build a new smart city will required land pulling, that will add more fuel to the heat created due to the suggested changes in Land Acquisition Bill by NDA government. Even on ground, farmers are reluctant to give up their plots of land as they know their employment prospects in the new cities are dim, concentrated in low-wage and insecure informal work.
The other and the most interesting facet of smart cities concept is RSS, which is also a serious ‘backstage’ stakeholder in Narendra Modi lead government. It may be an 89 year old organisation, identified as representing a more conservative set of values. But the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is witnessing steady progress by introducing many technologically advance programs. RSS knows that its growth is inversely proportional to the development of smart cities and there will be no place for RSS’s core Hindu ideology is any of the smart city and that will act as a barrier in its expansion.
It is evident that according to RSS, two different nations India and Bharat resides in our nation and RSS always bats for the very idea of ‘Bharat’. Their view suggest that the very idea of westernization persists deeply in the urban class which they called India.
RSS knows the idea of smart cities is so appealing that it will openly fascinate the rural crowd and will directly impact to their aspirations. It will be wrong to say that RSS is present in urban cities but majorly in terms of ideological connect, it is very strong among rural masses. Even today, ‘Shakha’ plays a vital role in the personality development of many rural and small town children.
On the other hand, smart cities will follow the western pattern of development which will consist of tall buildings, largely English speaking crowd, well decorative public spaces and high class infrastructure. It is obvious to understand that such places have no space for RSS to hold ‘Shakhas’ for engaging masses. A study suggests that in last one year ‘Shakhas’ have grown by 18% across country. No doubt, Modi’s popularity has played a key role in the sudden growth of RSS and enhanced its reachability towards urban youth.
Modi’s smart city plan is, commendably, linked to expanding manufacturing jobs. Newer and better urban infrastructure, in theory, will attract investment and jobs, but the principle of “if you build it, they will come,” in India as well as elsewhere in the world, has produced more white elephants than thriving cities. RSS used the same argument when Rajiv Gandhi was keen on introducing computers based infrastructure in India but now things are different. This time RSS can’t dare to oppose the idea at open platforms because of two very strong reasons. First, this time the ruling party is BJP, which considers RSS its ideological parent. Secondly, in this globalized era, RSS can’t afford the hating of aspiring youth which constitutes 65% of India’s population in total.
From a distance, it appears that RSS going through its golden phase but the truth is, RSS top brass is actually worried about the future of their organization. Modi’s political and ideological background deeply connected with RSS but since 2002, when Modi crown as the CM of Gujarat, their relationship saw many ups and down. During his 12 years long regime, he sidelined RSS, VHP and many other organizations which consider BJP as their political brother. But, you may call it the beauty of Indian politics, the same organization put their all weight and efforts behind Modi during 2014 general elections.
Things are different now, despite of having differences on many issues, Modi and RSS are incomplete without each other and shaping up the idea of smart cities is need of the hour.
This article was first published in Janta Ka Reporter.
This article was first published in Janta Ka Reporter.
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