News / Columns / Smruti Koppikar

Smruti Koppikar

Smruti Koppikar is an award-winning Mumbai-based journalist and currently the Founder Editor of Question of Cities, an online journal on cities and ecology.

Articles by Smruti Koppikar

We will not ‘doob maro’, will keep asking questions this elections

When the dissonance was pointed out by sections of the media, when the link between Article 370 and Assembly election was questioned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “doob maro”.

The BJP and Sena speak of an imagined enhanced status for India, the need for daily doses of nationalism. Simply put, these are not issues why Maharashtra’s voters should re-elect BJP-Sena to the Assembly.(Representational photo)

cities

Published on Oct 17, 2019 12:55 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

The Aarey battle has invaluable lessons for Mumbai

Civil society can and does stand up for causes, even in a city like Mumbai with the crushing demands it makes on people’s time and energy. Aarey is a good example of how citizens found common cause and rallied around together.

The Aarey forest lost 2,141 trees in the span of two nights and a day over the weekend. The site resembled a war zone.(HT file photo)

cities

Updated on Oct 10, 2019 12:00 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Invoking Gandhi, the icon; Ignoring Gandhi, the idea

Gandhi, the man, must have been fascinating. Gandhi, the idea, even more so.

Students offer tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary, in Surat, on Wednesday.(PTI)

cities

Published on Oct 02, 2019 11:38 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Election minus contest, unipolar politics isn’t good news

The gradual disintegration of opposition parties has meant that the contrarian or challenger voice does not get reflected in the Assembly

Maharastra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has been campaigning for his party, the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections.(AFP)

cities

Updated on Sep 26, 2019 12:48 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar, Mumbai

Mumbai’s many tongues and linguistic swagger

What else is Bambaiyya Hindi if not a unique, grammar-free, syntax-free and reference-free mix of Marathi, Gujarati, even Urdu mixed with Hindi? It is voiced by Bollywood characters on the screen but the dialect – it is that, a dialect – is heard zillions of times more on the streets of Mumbai.

In Mumbai, language matters less than survival instinct and swagger(Representational photo)

cities

Updated on Sep 19, 2019 01:48 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Battle for Aarey is a battle for Mumbai

This column rarely repeats an issue in successive weeks, but Aarey is too precious to lose even an inch of.

People protest against the cutting of 2,700 trees for the Metro car shed at Aarey colony, on September 8.(HT FILE)

cities

Published on Sep 11, 2019 11:52 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Mr CM, take Aarey and you set up Mumbai for more floods

The Tree Authority meeting, which saw a split of eight to six in favour of the proposal, seems to have had its share of slyness, politics and confusion

Protesters form a human chain during protest destruction of Aarey Colony.(HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Sep 05, 2019 12:19 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar, Mumbai

Citizen activism can’t replace Mumbai civic body’s responsibility

Citizens, however well-intentioned and resourceful, must not plug the gaps in a way that allows the BMC to get away easily

Potholes, Mumbai’s monsoon menace, have already claimed 11 lives this year. There have been more than 100 complaints of potholes from each of the city’s 27 civic wards and this is not counting the ones on highways.(Representational photo)

cities

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 12:09 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Saffronising the study in Mumbai University

The centre is named after Balvant (Bal) Apte, the late lawyer, Rajya Sabha MP and ideologue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The University of Mumbai will set up a new study centre for short-term courses and a PhD degree in comparative studies of student and youth movements across the world(Representational photo)

cities

Updated on Aug 22, 2019 01:19 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Freedom through the dark clouds this Independence Day

Depending on which side of the political divide one stands, the last ten days have been cause for grand celebration at the “integration” of Jammu & Kashmir or immense distress at the purpose and manner of it all.

The rituals unroll on expected lines. Yet, this Independence Day throws up questions: What to celebrate as freedom and how to celebrate it.(Representational photo)

cities

Updated on Aug 15, 2019 12:35 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

How to make Mumbai flood-proof and flood-ready

It’s time to look beyond the capacity of the stormwater drains and water pumping stations

The city’s plans must be redrawn to make space for rainwater both on the ground and below the ground.(Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

cities

Published on Aug 08, 2019 09:17 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Forget Hyperloop, what city needs is hyper-connectivity

With nearly 1.25 lakh vehicles a day and nearly 100 million people travelling every year on the Mumbai-Pune stretch, perhaps there is a niche market for the Hyperloop

cities

Updated on Aug 01, 2019 12:58 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Stiff parking penalties not a problem, lack of policy is

Little to no attention was paid to Mumbai’s parking system in the last decade, even as the number of vehicles on the streets multiplied

A view of the parking lot inside a traffic island near Regal cinema in Mumbai.(HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jul 24, 2019 11:56 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Corals and common sense calls for reflection on Coastal Road project

The Bombay HC, on Tuesday, halted all work on the Coastal Road, quashed the approvals given to it under Coastal Regulation Zone law in the last two years, and caught out the deception of the Devendra Fadnavis government and BMC on the project.

The HC brought a much-needed pause in the ₹14,000 crore and nearly 30 kilometres Coastal Road project.(Pratik Chorge/HT File)

cities

Updated on Jul 17, 2019 11:43 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Mumbai in many portraits and imaginations. What’s yours?

“Mumbai is Mahalakshmi temple and Mahim church watching the sea inch inwards, nervous about men in power wrecking tidal rhythms for the coastal road. Mumbai is the hiker of Aarey forest who hugged trees. Mumbai is a portrait in progress.”

Picture for representation only.(HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jul 11, 2019 04:30 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Muddling through monsoon is Mumbai’s de facto response

Mumbaiites did the best they could in the face of merciless monsoon and unpreparedness of the city’s administrators – helped each other out, relayed information on water-logged areas, extensively used social media, offered tea and snacks to the stranded, some even took in strangers for the night

Picture for representation only.(Vijayanand Gupta/HT Photo)

cities

Updated on Jul 04, 2019 12:13 AM IST

BySmruti Koppikar

No ‘Khan Market’ in Mumbai, only pro-Modi SoBo club

When Modi used the term “Khan Market gang” last month in the closing phases of the general election, it was to mock the group of the entitled, the liberals and leftists.

The movers and shakers of Mumbai – therefore, the nation – sit pretty in south Mumbai(File Photo)

cities

Updated on Jun 27, 2019 01:02 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Esplanade Mansion: Significant heritage, wilful neglect

Every passing year has dealt a further blow to the stability of its rare cast-iron structure, oldest of its kind in India

cities

Updated on Jun 20, 2019 04:05 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Girish Karnad, the artiste as a brave intellectual

Karnad’s legacy encompasses his public role as a libertarian, an uncompromising public intellectual

Writer, playwright, actor and movie director Girish Raghunath Karnad died in Bengaluru on Monday June 10, 2019 after suffering from a long illness.

cities

Updated on Jun 13, 2019 11:30 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Gender-geography equation can change with free transport

Such plans evolve and are course-corrected as they are implemented. There is no perfect plan, ever. It’s facile to dismiss Kejriwal as a populist and the plan as a poll gimmick. But a city must begin somewhere

cities

Updated on Jun 06, 2019 12:15 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Whom does the Mumbai Congress represent?

Irrespective of how party president Rahul Gandhi’s resignation saga plays out, the Mumbai Congress would have to pull up its socks, iron out a working relationship among its warring leaders, and determine what it represents in the city.

The Congress, which fielded five of the six candidates, has been beset by structural problems such as not having a ground-level active cadre and leadership crisis brought about by intense factionalism.(Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

cities

Published on May 30, 2019 01:06 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Election 2019: Few takeaways that define India

Beyond Mumbai and Maharashtra, this election has redrawn India’s electoral paradigm in at least six ways

A Lok Sabha win for Shiv Sena and BJP will make things easier ahead of the Assembly elections.(HT Photo)

cities

Updated on May 23, 2019 12:32 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Governing the city from chief minister’s office undemocratic

Mumbai got a new municipal commissioner in Praveen Pardeshi. He has since said the right words and promised Mumbaiites all the good things that a new commissioner usually does. But does the change of guard really matter?

cities

Updated on May 15, 2019 10:58 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

How tolerant should Mumbaiites be of bad roads, unsafe bridges?

In any other international city, the person in charge would have stepped up after an incident

The foot overbridge leading to CSMT collapsed on March 14, 2019.(HT Photo)

cities

Updated on May 10, 2019 07:01 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Good turnout but Mumbai isn’t a political city

Mumbai witnessed a 55.11% turnout this year as opposed to the 41.4% in 2014

Voters stand in a queue to cast their vote at Colaba Municipal School on Monday, March 29.(HT Photo)

cities

Published on May 01, 2019 11:22 PM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Lok Sabha elections 2019| Big business in politics: Story of rising power, presence

The 2019 general election will cost an unprecedented ₹50,000 crore or $7 billion, according to New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies. That business and industry share a symbiotic relationship with politics is an open secret.

That business and industry share a symbiotic relationship with politics is an open secret. For a number of historical reasons, both sides were content to keep it away from public glare.

elections

Published on Apr 25, 2019 02:26 AM IST

BySmruti Koppikar

Big business in politics: Story of rising power, presence

If only a change of government and party in power were as simple as a video endorsement, politicians would not be juggling electoral arithmetic and there wouldn’t be a booming electoral economy

cities

Updated on Apr 25, 2019 10:24 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

If only issues, not poll arithmetic, mattered in election

Between these predictable claims and criticisms, some issues that concern Mumbai’s voters have not got the play they deserved

cities

Published on Apr 18, 2019 12:36 AM IST

Hindustan Times | BySmruti Koppikar

Bollywood as Narendra Modi’s propaganda machine

It is highly deplorable that the BJP has used all available platforms to not only propagandise itself but serve a perilous mix of high-pitched nationalism and strongman branding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

cities

Updated on Apr 11, 2019 12:13 AM IST

BySmruti Koppikar

Women voters, women politicians and gender concerns

Giving nomination to two women allows the Congress to crow that it has implemented the 33% reservation for women in electoral politics in Mumbai

Priya Dutt is in the fray from Mumbai North Central constituency.

cities

Updated on Apr 03, 2019 11:23 PM IST

BySmruti Koppikar

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Smruti Koppikar

Smruti Koppikar is an award-winning Mumbai-based journalist and currently the Founder Editor of Question of Cities, an online journal on cities and ecology.

When the dissonance was pointed out by sections of the media, when the link between Article 370 and Assembly election was questioned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “doob maro”.

Civil society can and does stand up for causes, even in a city like Mumbai with the crushing demands it makes on people’s time and energy. Aarey is a good example of how citizens found common cause and rallied around together.

Gandhi, the man, must have been fascinating. Gandhi, the idea, even more so.

The gradual disintegration of opposition parties has meant that the contrarian or challenger voice does not get reflected in the Assembly

What else is Bambaiyya Hindi if not a unique, grammar-free, syntax-free and reference-free mix of Marathi, Gujarati, even Urdu mixed with Hindi? It is voiced by Bollywood characters on the screen but the dialect – it is that, a dialect – is heard zillions of times more on the streets of Mumbai.

This column rarely repeats an issue in successive weeks, but Aarey is too precious to lose even an inch of.

The Tree Authority meeting, which saw a split of eight to six in favour of the proposal, seems to have had its share of slyness, politics and confusion

Citizens, however well-intentioned and resourceful, must not plug the gaps in a way that allows the BMC to get away easily

The centre is named after Balvant (Bal) Apte, the late lawyer, Rajya Sabha MP and ideologue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Depending on which side of the political divide one stands, the last ten days have been cause for grand celebration at the “integration” of Jammu & Kashmir or immense distress at the purpose and manner of it all.

It’s time to look beyond the capacity of the stormwater drains and water pumping stations

With nearly 1.25 lakh vehicles a day and nearly 100 million people travelling every year on the Mumbai-Pune stretch, perhaps there is a niche market for the Hyperloop

Little to no attention was paid to Mumbai’s parking system in the last decade, even as the number of vehicles on the streets multiplied

The Bombay HC, on Tuesday, halted all work on the Coastal Road, quashed the approvals given to it under Coastal Regulation Zone law in the last two years, and caught out the deception of the Devendra Fadnavis government and BMC on the project.

“Mumbai is Mahalakshmi temple and Mahim church watching the sea inch inwards, nervous about men in power wrecking tidal rhythms for the coastal road. Mumbai is the hiker of Aarey forest who hugged trees. Mumbai is a portrait in progress.”

When Modi used the term “Khan Market gang” last month in the closing phases of the general election, it was to mock the group of the entitled, the liberals and leftists.

Every passing year has dealt a further blow to the stability of its rare cast-iron structure, oldest of its kind in India

Karnad’s legacy encompasses his public role as a libertarian, an uncompromising public intellectual

Such plans evolve and are course-corrected as they are implemented. There is no perfect plan, ever. It’s facile to dismiss Kejriwal as a populist and the plan as a poll gimmick. But a city must begin somewhere

Irrespective of how party president Rahul Gandhi’s resignation saga plays out, the Mumbai Congress would have to pull up its socks, iron out a working relationship among its warring leaders, and determine what it represents in the city.

Beyond Mumbai and Maharashtra, this election has redrawn India’s electoral paradigm in at least six ways

Mumbai got a new municipal commissioner in Praveen Pardeshi. He has since said the right words and promised Mumbaiites all the good things that a new commissioner usually does. But does the change of guard really matter?

In any other international city, the person in charge would have stepped up after an incident

Mumbai witnessed a 55.11% turnout this year as opposed to the 41.4% in 2014

The 2019 general election will cost an unprecedented ₹50,000 crore or $7 billion, according to New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies. That business and industry share a symbiotic relationship with politics is an open secret.

If only a change of government and party in power were as simple as a video endorsement, politicians would not be juggling electoral arithmetic and there wouldn’t be a booming electoral economy

Between these predictable claims and criticisms, some issues that concern Mumbai’s voters have not got the play they deserved

It is highly deplorable that the BJP has used all available platforms to not only propagandise itself but serve a perilous mix of high-pitched nationalism and strongman branding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Giving nomination to two women allows the Congress to crow that it has implemented the 33% reservation for women in electoral politics in Mumbai

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