Mumbai vs Bengaluru: The contrasting fortunes of citizen movements

Mumbai: Bengaluru danced to the sweet tune of victory last week after Karnataka government backed off from its plan to construct a 10-storey annexe for the high court in the iconic 300-acre Cubbon Park. A post by Bengaluru Residents Welfare Association’s on X that read, “#ChaloCubbon has just started we will protest every weekend until the proposal is permanently withdrawn,” evoked memories of ‘Sundays for Aarey’ when Mumbaikars pooled their energies to protest the construction of the 25-acre metro car depot, considered as the nerve centre of the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz underground metro 3 corridor.

Although both movements mirrored one another, the outcomes differed greatly.

The Karnataka government buckled under public pressure and Bengaluru saved 100-odd trees. The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) in 2019 axed 2,185 trees overnight on what was then only a proposed site to build the car shed inside Mumbai’s 3000-acre green lung. In November 2022, the Supreme Court gave its go-ahead to the controversial metro car shed project. Today, 99% of work on the car shed is complete and the Aarey-BKC underground metro route is likely to become operational in May.

Stalin D, director of Vanashakti, and a petitioner in Aarey and Coastal Road projects, said, “Citizens’ movements survive only when government listens. They were never on-board when we asked for a detailed open public debate on metro car shed or the Mumbai Coastal Road.” He explained “since the state came under the current dispensation at the Centre, all uprisings have been bulldozed”. “People’s movements work only in functional democracy,” he added.

Speaking about the success of citizens’ movements, Bengaluru-based Cynthia Stephen, president of TEDS Trust, who was part of Cubbon Park campaigns, said, “Political party in the ruling government matters. When governments realise they are facing heat from people on certain plans, they do listen. The Congress is somewhat responsive to these issues. That is why having a government which listens is also important.”

THE WAY WE REBEL

Politics aside, urban researcher and professor Hussain Indorewala said the nature of citizens’ movements in Mumbai have undergone change, as also the “issues that are now a concern”. “The nature of planning, projects and urban development has also transformed,” said Indorewala.

Earlier struggles were largely based in labour unions or political parties – the movements had a mass base that led to a larger mobilisation, which resulted in impact. For instance, housing projects built in Mumbai came out of slum dweller movements in the ’60s and ’70s. Serious efforts towards civic activism began with the formation of the Save Bombay Committee in 1970-71 and Bombay Bachao Committee in 1977 (later, the Bombay Environmental Action Group). Since the 1980s, participation of civil society organisations, residents’ associations and non-government organisations became more visible.

Nayana Kathpalia, trustee of NGO NAGAR, which has fought for the preservation of open spaces in Mumbai, recalled how the wayward and drug peddlers took over south Mumbai’s iconic government-run Oval Maidan in the 1990s. Kathpalia, who spent her childhood playing in the maidan in the 1950s, said they moved Bombay high court when the government did not heed residents’ complaints. Eventually in 1997, the Oval-Cooperage Residents Association (OCRA) was formed led by Kathpalia, lawyer Shirin Bharucha and charted accountant Asad Mehta. HC ruled in their favour, and OCRA took over the park – one of Mumbai’s most beautiful open spaces.

“The BMC kept bringing in policies; we kept turning them down. They keep tinkering with the open space policy, trying to bring in caretaker policy in some form or the other,” she said.

Oval’s success is not an isolated one. Since early 2000s, several ALMs (Advanced Locality Management) have been at the forefront to rescue open spaces, fighting hawkers and getting rid of ugly banners.

“We were the eyes and ears of people and functioned like a mini-opposition at the ward level. If we didn’t get remedy, in our own way we resorted to pressure tactics,” said Anandini Thakoor, a nonagenarian and erstwhile president, H (West) federation. “An individual cannot help; numbers bring in change.”

“Over the years, civil society movements have also emerged on issues such as heritage conservation, open spaces and environment,” said Indorewala.

In contrast to material issues like wages, working conditions or housing, environmental issues tend to be somewhat disconnected from people’s immediate needs, and therefore these demands have been advocated most often by professionals and NGOs, and their mode of campaigning has been through the media and courts. “Unless citizens’ movements challenging policy or large infrastructure projects mobilize large numbers of people, they are going to have very limited success,” he said.

“Also, urban planning today is through big infrastructure projects developed by parastatal agencies, that often do not originate from master plans,” he added, calling attention to the metro, which was planned by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. It was not a part of the 1991 DP, but included after it was planned as a separate project, in the 2018 DP. Similarly, the Mumbai Coastal Road sealink from Versova to Virar is not a part of the 2018 Mumbai DP or the latest Regional Plan.

SMALL AND BIG WINS

Mumbai may not have seen big victories in pushbacks towards big ticket infra projects, but the small wins are noteworthy as they have been for public good.

The Coastal Road project was opposed on the premise that the road would benefit only car owners while the sea reclamation would impact marine ecology; there was also the fear of seawater inundation inland during monsoon. Fisherfolk from Cleveland Bunder, in Worli Koliwada, didn’t allow the construction of an interchange between the Coastal Road and the southern end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, arguing that navigation span restricted to 60 metres will cut them off from their traditional fishing grounds.

Fast forward to 2023: the south-bound arm of the road from Worli to Marine Lines is scheduled to be inaugurated this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But not without environmental activists, ecologists and fisherfolk achieving two slices of victory.

A total of 329 live coral colonies from the Haji Ali Bay were translocated to Navy Nagar in November 2020 following Bombay high court’s intervention. In December 2022, after a four-year tussle between the fisherfolk and BMC and intervention from chief minister Eknath Shinde, the civic body agreed to increase the navigation span to 120mts. A pillar had to be knocked off; the change in design cost BMC an extra ₹600 crore.

Likewise, though the metro car shed in Aarey is getting ready, the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government in October 2020 notified 327.2 hectares of the area as a reserved forest under the Indian Forests Act. Notified areas have been handed over to the forest department.

“Knowing well that large public infrastructure projects will materialise, citizens also tend to recalibrate how they want to oppose. They won’t oppose projects in entirety, but raise their voice to ensure there is no ecological damage when building the Coastal Road,” said Indorewala.

Citizens also pick up issues that affect their routine lives. For months in 2018, project-affected people (PAP) in transit camps in Mahul led by Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan staged protests and formed human chains, demanding they be moved elsewhere; they eventually moved HC. In January 2019, taking note of intense pollution in Mahul, HC restrained the state government from shifting any PAP to Eversmile Complex, the PAP colony in the locality.

Last year when BMC chief and administrator I S Chahal announced the plan to create underground parking lots below the Pushpa Narsee Park in JVPD and the Patwardhan Park in Bandra West in his budget speech, citizens raised objections. While residents with support from the local MLA, were victorious in getting the civic body to change its mind on Pushpa Narsee Park, those opposing the plan in Patwardhan Park moved court. BMC has not proceeded with the plan as the petition is pending before HC.

The controversy over the Malabar Hill Reservoir reconstruction project resulted in the intervention of Mumbai suburban guardian minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha after BMC refused to heed requests by citizens and activists against removal and replanting of trees to increase the capacity of the reservoir built in 1881 in the Hanging Garden area. Lodha wrote to Chahal to amend the proposal and a committee of experts was constituted to revisit the proposal. The final report from IIT-Bombay is awaited.

The construction of Gokhale Bridge in Andheri, an important east-west connector, also saw active participation of MLA Ameet Satam. “Unlike south Mumbai residents and the Worli fisherfolk, Aarey is not a vote-bank since it is not populated,” said Stalin. “South Mumbai, with its seat of power, bureaucrats, the elite and influential, is more powerful than the rest of Mumbai. The guardian minister also lives there and doesn’t want to upset his electorate. So, when they get together and fight, it makes a difference.”

SAVING RACECOURSE AND OPEN SPACES

Two big moves by BMC shook up Mumbai last year – its takeover of Mahalaxmi Racecourse and its interim policy on open spaces.

While BMC has decided to scrap the new draft policy on open spaces heeding citizens’ objections, activists fighting for preservation of open spaces and politicians do not want a revert of the old interim policy which allows adoption of recreation grounds and playgrounds for eleven months by private entities.

Mumbaikars are waiting to see how the civic body will create a theme park on a portion of the racecourse, after 76.27% members of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) voted in favour of BMC’s proposal to reclaim 120 acres.

The difference between the success of citizen campaigns and activism in Mumbai and Bengaluru was explained well by Stephen: the presence of a very strong, old and influential real estate lobby in Mumbai for a very long time. “The real estate boom in Mumbai has been on for the past 40-50 years, whereas in Bengaluru it has only been 20-30 years,” said Stephen. “Citizen activism has been relatively new in Bengaluru whereas in Mumbai, they are up against 200-year-old establishment.”