Lawbreaker lawmakers?

Just around 50% of Delhi’s 14.5 million eligible voters exercised their franchise on a lazy Sunday morning, as the city’s municipal body went to the polls after 5.5 years, sealing the fate of 1,394 candidates vying for 250 seats at Civic Centre.

Trouble viewing this email? View in web browser Monday, 05 December 2022 By Saurya Sengupta The crime, the Covid, the politics and the potholes: Capital Letters — Keeping track of Delhi's week, one beat at a time, through the eyes and words of HT's My Delhi section, with all the perspective, context and analysis you need. Good morning! Just around 50% of Delhi’s 14.5 million eligible voters exercised their franchise on a lazy Sunday morning, as the city’s municipal body went to the polls after 5.5 years, sealing the fate of 1,394 candidates vying for 250 seats at Civic Centre.       The polling number this year is a dip from 53.5% in 2017 and 53.3% in 2012, but still well above the 43.2% in 2007. And expect the number to be revised upwards marginally as the poll body reconciles all its figures. We will, on Wednesday, find out which party clinches most of those seats (it’ll likely be a bipolar contest between the BJP and the AAP) and plots the city’s civic roadmap for the next five years. But, it’s easy to forget the significance of these elections beyond the immediate impact on the role and functioning of the municipal corporation. For one, these will be Delhi’s first elections after two-and-half years marked by social turmoil and fissures, in the form of the riots in February 2020 and the Jahangirpuri violence this April (which was followed by an area-wide demolition drive days later, by the civic body, no less). Though these are unlikely to bear on the minds of voters across the city, how the affected areas vote will be crucial to gauge electoral sentiments among residents and even to understand the stinging after-effects that the violence left on the homes in these neighbourhoods. It’s also worth remembering that the February 2020 riots erupted less than a couple of weeks after the state elections that year - The city voted on February 8, ballots were counted on February 11, and the violence tore through northeast Delhi from February 23, for about four days. Second, this is Delhi’s first election in the Covid-19 era. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the spotlight has been turned on Delhi’s public health like never before, and it’ll be worth reading into any impact it may have on the ballot. The national capital suffered extensively for two years, as the vicious infection gnawed away at the city’s medical infrastructure and killed thousands (over 26,500 people have died of Covid-19 since March 2020, according to official estimates alone). The Delta wave of the pandemic, between April and May 2021 was especially brutal, with cases spreading like wildfire and the shortage of basic health care (including hospital beds and oxygen) structures bringing to the fore a desperate need to better arm our medical workers and facilities. Given that the MCD runs nine major hospitals in Delhi, apart from several other key specialised centres, and caters to about 12 million patients a day, how voters perceive civic health care facilities is, in any case, a crucial determinant of the button they press on polling day. It’s also worth remembering that Delhi logged its first Covid-19 case on March 2, 2020, less than a month after the state elections. See? It really has been an absolutely ballistic two-and-half-years for Delhi. Third, tensions between the elected Delhi government and the BJP-run Centre (and, by extension, the LG) seem to hit fresh crescendos every day, and these skirmishes are likely to deepen and widen if the AAP takes charge of the MCD. Few Delhi government policies have been spared LG VK Saxena’s wrath, even as the district administration and AAP seem to clearly not be reading the same book, let alone the same page. In one of the most recent flashpoints between the Delhi government, LG and administration, the state law department has refused to clear the bills of several senior advocates, hired by law minister Kailash Gahlot to represent the government in the Delhi high court. Officials cited non-compliance of financial rules and procedural lapses in the terms of their engagement, even as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the LG and BJP of obstructing the elected government’s work. Earlier this year, after the civic bodies were re-unified through The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the balance of power in the new, solo MCD was shifted significantly. In an explainer, HT wrote: “The MCD commissioner has also been made accountable only to the Centre under the new bill. In essence, the proposed law effectively takes the Delhi government out of the picture in terms of decision-making in the unified corporation.” If the AAP wins the polls, expect this to be fresh fodder for conflict with the Centre. STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED Capital lost ₹2,873 crore due to excise policy loopholes: ED to city court Delhi woman, son kill man, chop body into pieces Murder suspect Aaftab Poonawala given book to read at his request In graphic detail (Click to expand ) Delhi’s air ‘severe’ again Pollution levels in Delhi worsened into the “severe” zone again on Sunday. And this time, the administration has nobody to blame but themselves — no farm fires in Punjab to piggyback on this time. It’s an annual phenomenon. Every year, around December, the air worsens to catastrophic levels, from which it receded just about a month ago. In fact, this spell extends to January every year. And yet, the second act of Delhi’s two-act pollution play isn’t received with nearly the same attention as the first. That may have to do with optics, to some extent - the air in December doesn’t look as bad as it does in October (the visuals have absolutely nothing to do with quality of air) and there are no accompanying, dramatic images of farm fires. But the fact remains that we’re back in the middle of another air disaster, this time of the city’s own-making. To be sure, Delhi’s is generally quite poor all through the year. It just turns hazardous for two large bands - first from October (thanks to dipping temperatures and farm fires) to mid-November and then from December to early-January (thanks to even cooler temperatures and a consequent uptick in the number of bonfires). (Click to expand ) The December pollution is driven largely by vehicular emissions and road dust, worsening a problem Delhi has long contended with - its sheer traffic volume (which is more than Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai combined). To this effect, the CAQM (the panel in charge of controlling air quality in NCR) banned private constructions and demolitions, as it imposed Stage 3 of its anti-pollution plan. But the effectiveness of this plan is anybody’s guess. And now, we are all at the mercy of the winds. It cannot be Delhi’s biggest bhatura. You can make that claim only by trying every bhatura eatery in the metropolis — an impossible task. But the bhatura at Kwality Restaurant is truly huge. Plus, you get the joy of dining in one of the oldest Connaught Place eateries! Delhi winters make sunshine precious. The smoggy air makes the sunshine doubly precious. It’s a joyful though often frustrating task to capture the poetic winter light in the city. This week, take out time daily to chase and capture this elusive cold light through your camera lens. Here we found a version of winter-season sunlight, most subtle but very expressive, on the wall of an Old Delhi house. It was fleeting but exquisite. It’s a cliché. That our country is a land of colours. But most cliches are based on facts. One recent afternoon, a New Delhi railway station platform hosted a group of passengers waiting for their express, each of them attired in a striking colour. The sight was lovely.       Please share your feedback with us What do you think about this newsletter? Loved it Meh! Hated it Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. Written and edited by Saurya Sengupta. Produced by Divneet Singh. Send in your feedback to saurya.sengupta@htlive.com or divneet.singh@partner.htdigital.in . Get the Hindustan Times app and read premium stories View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for HT Newsletters or because it is included in your subscription. Copyright © HT Digital Streams. All Rights Reserved

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