EVEN as Bhopal gets ready to host the Global Investors’ Summit (GIS), the common people are becoming vocal about the failure of the administration to get the city cleaned up not just for the event but also for all the time. For, as the capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal deserves to be kept clean and tidy all the time, and to be projected as a global metropolis. As he moves around in the city, the loosefooter realises the potential Bhopal has as a city of true global standards -- provided the State Government, the local administration, the political community and the common people make up their mind firmly about turning the place into a shining example of great urban management.

 

The loosefooter also realises that the lake city has all the right attributes of a great city -- with a great history, a fine present, and a promising future. Yet, for reasons known and unknown, the leadership -- over decades -- never actually felt like putting that sort of passion into its thought and action to create a great urban centre out of Bhopal. There were some truly great people who made signal contributions to making Bhopal a really good city, all right. Yet, such people were few and far between, and so their overall impact on city’s persona was only marginal, so to say. Possibly, this is also the story of many cities in the country. India does have many really, really great cities, but most of those seem to have fallen on bad days simply because of the absence of vision and subsequent action.

 

For a city to become a place of global standards, some one has to first see a dream in that direction, then convert that dream into a well-calibrated vision, and then to create an action plan to pursue that vision. Unfortunately, in most places, this does not seem to have happened in the country. True, the urban policy of the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre has an element of planned growth for future.

 

Yet, the practical implementation of the idea has remained restricted only to physical markers such as Metro Rails, or modern railway stations and ultra-modern airports etc. Despite all those, modern-day cities in India do not give the impression of being truly world standards. The story of Bhopal is no different. That is the reason why Bhopal has mountains of uncleared garbage all over, while the city gets ready to host the Global Investors’ Summit. There is no need to find complex metaphors to explain this paradox. For, from the general condition of the city, it is easy to surmise that Bhopal lacks both, leadership vision and leadership action -- to make it a truly great, modern metropolis of world standards. With the Global Investors’ Summit looming large on the near horizon, the loosefooter, therefore, directs his thought on how the city could be converted into a great place -- beyond all doubts, beyond all doubting Thomases. n