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FEBRUARY 2021 Download this Article
It may sound absurd, questioning the new development of the central vista's modern architecture to be fit for the 21st century. But here are some crucial futuristic arguments overlooked in its design.
The primary assumption taken in the Central Vista design is that India's administration, governance, and democratic methods will continue to be the same as in the previous 19th and 20th centuries and that the time will continue to stand still.
CONCEPT of CAPITAL CITY
From time immemorial, the national capital is supposed to be the centre of the government's power and official administrative seat. In primitive centuries, the ministers and the administrators of various government departments were supposed to take verbal instructions from the monarchy and state head.
Subsequently, as systems matured and the administration methods improved, the instructions became more frequent and taken as official written orders.
As a result, the monarchy's court (darbar) with essential people got naturally located near the monarchy or the power centre. The courtiers, the officers, or representatives, travelled to the country's parts to carry out the orders and return to the capital with necessary intelligence and feedback.
The practice of officers and representatives going back and forth continues in the world, even today.
As the democracy reformed itself with aftereffects of the Magna Carta in 1215 A.D, the parliament met for a specified duration called session to transact people's business-like debates, discussions, and enacting laws for the country.
When the term of the session ended, all the representatives left for their constituencies, far and near. For the next session, they returned to the capital and temporarily lived in the city for the duration.
Today, travel is more comfortable than it was in previous centuries, and there was no tested example of holding successful online virtual assembly. Hence no one has questioned the periodic fanning out and converging of the representatives ever since.
The communication method in the parliament, which still is face-to-face, and the transmission of orders as paper documents by the executives and judiciary, makes it convenient for all the departments to be located and govern from the capital city.
This narrative is the most simplistic view of the capital city's function regarding the assembly of representatives and government seat.
As the politico-sociology would have it, this configuration concentrated the power play and power structure of the entire nation in the capital city. It is a practice that is prevalent in nearly all countries in the world today.
There are few exceptions, though, like that of Germany, where the judicial capital, the country's administrative capital and legislative capital are in three different cities of Karlsruhe, Bonn and Berlin, respectively.
It is an example to argue that the power centre need not be co-located in just a small geographical area and still effectively and efficiently run the country.
So much for the construct of the national capital of yesteryears.
CONSTRAINTS in CURRENT SYSTEM:
It is twenty-one years into the 21st century now, and digital technology governs the lives of one and all, irrespective of the country.
Along with developing technology, COVID19 has drastically changed the ways business and administration can work across the world. It is a futurist prophecy turned into reality. The practice of being physically present at a location to transact business has changed.
As an example, the British parliament and its select committees are functioning as usual. Participants are working from either their homes or local constituency office.
They are not travelling to London, the capital city of Britain. In the middle of this change in working, Britain is also enacting laws in parliament and transitioning BREXIT.
No argument can negate this fact and challenge the efficiency of methodology when compared to pre-Covid days.
Further, in the future, digital connectivity is only going to get better. 5G is round the corner. The video conferencing and audio quality is going to be HD quality.
The future will not be about digital video conferences but also high-efficiency in the internet-of-things. This technological era will enable the departments to relocate themselves where there is a maximum activity of interest.
For example, why should the ministry of mining be located in New Delhi or, for that matter ministry of fisheries? The department of agriculture is also unsuitably situated in New Delhi.
Their offices and departments can be closer to the critical mass of farmers and agricultural activity. The tribal development ministry needs to work from the tribal districts across the states.
There is another constraint about having a national capital centralized in the 21st century. Today the parliament session is limited to just a few days of the years.
According to Partap Singh Bajwa, MP, Rajya Sabha, between 2014 and 2018, the number of days the Indian parliament has conducted business is down to only 64 days.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, the parliament sits for more than 120 days each year. This number is nearly two times the Indian average.
Also, the Indian parliament meets in these three staggered sessions.
· Budget session: January/February to May
· Monsoon session: July to August/September
· Winter session: November to December
This scheduling of sessions is again the primitive way of doing democratic business. For the duration of the session, the members of parliament temporarily shift to the national capital with their entire logistics. Their staff follows them to the capital city.
During that time, their constituents are without their representatives. Obviously, their representative cannot be in two places at once. This is the problem the 21st century is going to resolve.
On the contrary, imagine the parliamentary business's efficiency if the members participate for 220 days a year, in addition to the constituents having their representatives locally available all round the year.
SOLUTION: DISTRIBUTED DEMOCRACY MODEL
Consider this 21st-century vision of the Indian capital.
The representatives work from their constituent offices (call it Sansad Outlet) all round the year. Every working day, all round the year, the parliament can transact business in the morning (say 8 am until 1 pm) and have the second half of the day for local engagements.
The Online parliament and Select committee can work all around the year with magnificent savings of travel and parliament buildings.
They can vote online, record their protests, make interjections, give way to another member, and make speeches online. Nothing will change, except that they will participate in a genuinely democratic way from their constituencies.
India can have 543 Lok Sabha Outlets and 245 Rajya Sabha Outlets. In the future, the MPs can smartly share videos, documents on screen share to support their speeches rather than reading out a voluminous description of their arguments.
There is another bright side. The microphones will have longer life during a fiery debate.
If this local Sansad outlets' model gets replicates to state legislatures, the states will also conserve crucial time and money resources.
Currently, the capital of J&K moves to different cities based on the season. Srinagar serves as the summer capital of the state, while Jammu is the winter capital. Similarly, Maharashtra has a summer capital as Mumbai and a winter capital as Nagpur.
The entire state machinery shifts from one city to another every six months. Now with local Sansad outlets, they will not have to move at all.
It will be so easy that the President of India can address the joint sitting of parliament every working week. There will be no additional security arrangements, travel management of thousands of members and their staff, and load on logistics will be a bare minimum.
The amount of effort that will free up due to this distributed democracy model will make India stronger.
The ministries can also have a physically distributed department at maximum activity locations like mining, agriculture, fisheries, defence production, civil aviation etc.
I would reckon 75% of the ministries need not be in the national capital. Similarly, like the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Outlets, there can be respective ministry outlets across the country. As a constitutional requirement, the ministries can have a very slim top-end physical presence in the capital.
The advantage is enormous and will grow leaps and bounds with every small innovation that comes with digital connectivity technology.
Some governments are ahead of time and have taken their learning from COVID seriously. In the UK, the Communities and Housing Ministry have moved nearly 550 civil servants out of Whitehall, London, to Wolverhampton.
The government plans to move almost 22,000 civil servants outside of London by the year 2030.
RISK:
The new Central Vista redevelopment will also start a dangerous precedent in multiple ways.
Firstly, all the states will begin to evaluate their plans for a new state legislature building. Imagine 28 states and eight union territories getting their new buildings and a capital city.
The amount of concrete jungle India will create at the expense of taxpayers can be no less than being immoral.
Secondly, Central Vista redevelopment has a high potential of being contagious with other state governments.
Thirdly, there is a security risk too. With the Central Vista project, all eggs are in the small ten sq. km basket. Only one Mumbai style attack in the vista will change the fate of the entire country. It will jeopardize national stability.
If this risk is to mitigate, perpetual security services overdrive will result. Like always, the capital city of New Delhi would continue to be a fortress, ironically in the world's largest democracy. As it is, during the session days, it is a nightmare for security services.
What if the world is faced with COVID-19 like situations more often than ever before? With social distancing in practice, protecting the VIPs and population in general, these humungous building will stand cold and empty in the middle of the city.
SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES:
There are umpteen instances today to demonstrate that online democracy works as effectively as collocated parliament. In 2020, Global summits like G20 and United Nation General Assembly had shown that important and consequential world leaders' meetings, held online, are successful.
Instead of spending nearly $3 Bn or Rs 20,000 Crore on the redevelopment of the government complex, the same funds can create a modern parliamentary system that raises its standards of debates and transactions by connecting directly from the issue's location and make the representative available for longer.
It is the 21st century, and all human transactions are digitally enabled. So why can't the parliament and its functionary be 100% digital-enabled?
Distributed democracy is a proven Model, a reality, and if adopted, it will leave our prestigious Rajpath greener, India, more secure and redevelop a dynamic Indian democracy.
Reference:
Madhavan, M. (2017). Parliament. In: Kapur, D., Mehta, P. B. and Vaishnav, M., Rethinking Public Institutions in India, pp. 67-103.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/comment/minimum-working-days-for-mps-mlas-needed-698436
The Times – Saturday, February 20, 2021
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