Delhi can learn diversity from Mumbai: What the BMC, MCD polls reveal

The recent MCD polls have clearly and conclusively proved that though Delhi is the national capital, it remains local in outlook. It does not think beyond the Hindi-speaking states when choosing their corporators or Members of Parliament. Delhi likes to elect only true Delhiwallas or those who originally hail from north Indian states. Scan the list of winners: all 270 of them are either from Delhi or have some Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana connection.

Aamchi Mumbai witnessed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls in February.  Almost one-third of the winning corporators are non-Marathis. It is a remarkable feat when compared to Delhi. In the 227-member corporation, 72 are non-Marathi, up from the 61 who were elected in 2012. Of these, 26 are Muslims, 24 Gujaratis, 14 North Indians, five South Indians and three Christians. The BJP has sent the highest number of non-Marathi members — 36 in all, including 23 Gujaratis, 12 North Indians and one South Indian. For the first time, the Shiv Sena has sent a Muslim candidate to BMC. Uddhav Thackeray wooed Gujarati voters too, with one Gujarati Sainik making inroads into the BMC. Three South Indians and one North Indian also got elected on a Sena ticket. Among the Congress members, there are nine Muslims, three Christians and one North Indian. Six of the nine NCP representatives are Muslims.

In Delhi, unfortunately, no party gave a single ticket to any Bengali, Malayali, Tamil, Gujarati or people from other non-Hindi states. In Mumbai, the BJP was generous to non-Marathis. It reaped the fruits of the positive strategy. Will anybody in BJP and the other parties tell us why they ignored non-Hindi speaking candidates in Delhi? One party, two cities, two thoughts. Chittrangan Park, Minto Road, and Mahavir Enclave have a sizeable population of Bengalis. Outside West Bengal, Delhi has the largest number of Bengali medium schools — seven. Dilshad Garden, Mayur Vihar and Janak Puri may be considered as bastions of Malayali power. Newspaper vendors prominently display the Mathrubhoomi and Malyalam Manorma here. Tamils are a big force in Karol Bagh, Rohini, RK Puram, and Netaji Nagar.

How many Tamil, Bengali, Malayali, and Gujarati-speaking people live in Delhi? In the 2001 Census, Delhi had 2,08,414 Bengali speakers, 92,426 Tamils, 92,009 Malayalis and 45,145 Gujaratis. A senior Census official says these four communities would have doubled in these 16 years. Clearly their numbers are not small. Yet, they got nothing from major political parties.

Arguably, Delhi was more open to accepting non-Hindi speaking leaders in the past. CK Nair, a Malayali, was elected from the Outer Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 1952 and 1957. He was known as the ‘Gandhi of rural Delhi’. In 1980, Congress fielded CM Stephen from New Delhi seat against the BJP stalwart AB Vajpayee. Stephen lost to Vajpayee by a small margin. In the 80s, Shanti Desai, a Gujarati, was a top BJP leader in the MCD and even became Mayor. Meera Bhardwaj, a Malayali, was elected from the Patparganj assembly seat in 1998. But for these few examples, Delhi and its parties have never given enough chances to people from non-Hindi speaking states. That Mumbai society celebrates diversity is evident. There is a Shiv Kumar Mishra, Thevar Mariammal Mathuramlingan, Vini Fred D’Souza, Kamlesh Yadav, Sri Kala Pillai and Shiv Kumar Jha. Delhi has a long way to match Mumbai.

The author is a senior journalist based in Delhi.