India’s officialdom has a curious talent. It never solves problems. It merely fixes symptoms. Every few months, footpaths are cleared, flex boards are removed and illegal vendors are evicted. A few weeks later, everyone is back.
Our Governments perform what doctors would call ‘symptomatic treatment.’ They prescribe painkillers instead of curing the disease. Which is why we will forever remain a ‘developing country,’ never a developed one.
‘Developing’ is about making rules and enforcing those rules is what leads to a nation becoming ‘Developed.’ Unfortunately, we have no enforcement. Take the case of our own city, Mysuru.
The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has built vendor markets across residential neighbourhoods. A vegetable vendor is allotted a legal stall. Within weeks, another vendor illegally occupies the footpath right outside the same market. But he is not evicted.
Emboldened by this lack of enforcement by the MCC, five more vendors put up shop. Eventually, even the honest vendor inside the allotted shed shifts outside because that’s where the customers stop.
Soon, the footpath disappears. Pedestrians are forced to walk on the road. Cars stop in the middle of traffic to buy tomatoes. Two-wheelers park wherever they please. Traffic chokes.
Then it’s in the news. Then comes another clearance drive. Then we are back… to Chapter One, clearance drive and… the cycle repeats.
Minister for Greater Bengaluru Development Krishna Byre Gowda, who is clearing footpaths in Bengaluru, deserves credit for finally insisting that footpaths belong to pedestrians. But…when asked where displaced vendors should go, he suggested residential streets!
He simply relocated a problem instead of solving it! One can only imagine how many fights will break out as vegetable vendors and clothing sellers block the gate to a private citizen’s home.
Why should homeowners lose their peace because the city lacks the courage to regulate vending properly? Good governance is NOT moving chaos from Main Road to Cross Road. It is eliminating the chaos once and for all.
The solution has existed for years. Designated vending zones. Nominal licence fees. Strict enforcement. But who’ll bell this cat? After all, the vendor pays everyone: From the local Corporator to the Cop.
The same applies to flex boards. For nearly two decades, the MCC has announced one anti-flex campaign after another.
We were told in 2006 that heritage circles WOULD become hoarding-free. In 2009, illegal flexes WOULD disappear. In 2011, criminal cases WOULD be filed. In 2024, notices WOULD be issued. It’s all been Would, Would and more Would but the MCC never COULD.
Even today, our circles continue to be advertising junctions. The problem isn’t the law. Flex is already banned. The problem is the absence of consequences. The same disease infects everything else.
Last year, paintings of the legendary artist K. Venkatappa developed fungus inside Bengaluru’s own Venkatappa Art Gallery, a gallery named after the great man! It reminded me of R.K. Narayan.
When asked why he sold his manuscripts to an American archive instead of giving them to India, Narayan famously remarked that in India they would have been dumped in a dusty corner while in Boston they were preserved in air-conditioned vaults.
He wasn’t being cynical. He was being realistic. We Indians are astonishingly poor custodians of things that should make us proud. We vandalise heritage monuments. We scribble our names on ancient walls. We slash bus seats and steal train fittings.
The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984 promises imprisonment, but like many Indian laws, it exists mainly as literature. Author Rohinton Mistry rightly said, “India passes laws like urine…it all ends up in the gutter.”
Singapore understood something we never have, which is that laws are respected only when punishment is inevitable.
In 1994, an American teenager who spray-painted cars in Singapore was caned despite appeals from US President Bill Clinton. The sentence was only marginally reduced. The message was clear. Today, Singapore is spotless.
Perhaps our biggest national delusion is believing India is dirty because of poverty. It isn’t. It is dirty because of behaviour. Here’s proof.
Last Saturday morning’s newspapers showed photographs of a quiz evening in Bengaluru attended by affluent, highly educated venture capitalists. After they left, the hall resembled a garbage dump, littered with cups, food containers, tissues and spilt drinks.
In India, the number of educated people has increased and incomes have also increased, but civic sense is still below the poverty line.
One has to agree with Columnist Suhel Seth’s assessment that “Indians got rich faster than they got civilised.”
Our Prime Minister wants us to ‘Make in India.’ Perhaps first, we should ask ourselves to pledge ‘NOT to Break in India.’
Instead of playing the National Anthem in theatres, the Government should flash the duties of a citizen and punishments for damaging public property.
Here’s the truth: India is a breathtakingly beautiful country, Indians make it ugly.
Until we learn to preserve what we already have and are punished for the ‘ugly-fication’ of our city, every footpath cleaning drive and every anti-flex campaign will end up exactly where it always does…Back where it began.
e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com
This post was published on July 18, 2026 7:30 pm