Does Modi even know how to make Banaras a smart city?
On December 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his constituency Varanasi for the fourth time since becoming PM, this time with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.
"What did the PM and Abe come here to do?," I later ask people I meet while out on a walk - a man sitting next to me at a tea shop, a jeweller, a woman in a sweater shop, a weaver getting his watch repaired.
"What would we know about such things?" They give me knowing smiles. "He took the Japanese PM to see the Ganga arti at Dashashwamedh ghat" (the city's most elaborate, and by now, popular ceremony to the Ganga river, which began in 2004).
One man informs me importantly that an agreement has been signed between Banaras and a Japanese city, to develop Banaras into a "smart city." But what does that mean? I ask. For the people with whom I chat, a "smart" Banaras simply means a Banaras, somehow, unlike the polluted and chaotic city today. How Banaras could become the opposite of that is a question that produces vague and unambitious ideas: cleaning, flyovers, widening of roads…
In fact, the changes that have occurred in Banaras over the past year - undertaken by the state government - are examples of such a damage control approach. Some roads have been widened, others made one-way to direct traffic flow around the whole city, and traffic policemen positioned at crucial crossings. These changes have surely helped a little bit. But there are still traffic jams in the city each day. The air is increasingly polluted and the city filthy as ever.
What about the PM? I ask the people whom I meet. What actions has he taken to make Banaras "smart"? Nothing so far, most say, smiling cynically. The PM has made many promises, but nothing has been done yet. Many assure me in optimistic and conspiratorial tones that change takes time, that Banaras will change dramatically within a few year. Just wait and watch, they tell me.
But for all those I talk to, it isn't clear what the signing of an agreement between Banaras and Kyoto means or could mean for Banaras, and what exactly has been planned, if anything at all, towards "smartening" Banaras.
What Banaras really needs in order to solve its problems for the long-term is a vision and a plan animated by that vision - a plan that would have to be much larger than the widening of a road here or the stationing of a traffic policeman there.
This vision and plan for Banaras would take into account its historical, cultural and socio-economic character, and ambitiously imagine and work toward a chosen future. A truly smart plan for the city would, in fact, not just clean and organise it, but would also carry forward its "heritage" and the best aspects of life here.
It would ensure the continuation of this heritage in the best way possible, that is, through being integrated into spaces, systems and practices. The meaning of "smart city" should be much deeper than just a clean and organised place. A "smart city" should be the kind that offers possibilities each day to enrich the lives of all its residents.
Banaras is a special place in many ways, as we well know. But there are other special places in the world that have "smartened" themselves, as well as preserved their special characteristics and found ways to carry them forward. We can take from all those models as well as invent our own ways.
There is little point in widening roads if more and more people choose to drive cars. There is little point in cleaning a ghat when people don't have a real sense of responsibility and appreciation for their communal spaces. Smaller solutions need to be a part of a larger plan, and the larger plan must be one that seeks the participation of the people of Banaras.
Rules and systems encourage people to change their habits and ways of thinking, but only when they work deliberately and sensitively on multiple levels. Banaras' transformation would have to be as much of a social transformation as a top-down, administrative one, as much of an inner transformation as a surface, physical one.
Who can do this for Banaras? If all of us in Banaras have higher expectations of ourselves, if we all learn from successes and failures at other times and in other places, and if those of us with ideas and expertise of different kinds share with each other and take action, then something revolutionary, for the whole of India, could happen.
Banaras could become a model for other Indian cities.
I am sceptical that the PM will transform Banaras, because he has done little so far and has not shown, through his other actions, that his ideas are particularly visionary or humane. It's ironic (but not surprising) that what he showed Abe of Banaras is the Ganga arti at Dashashwamedh ghat, for that ceremony, in its simplistic and intrusive nature, is hardly representative of the culture of Banaras.
Why didn't he take him to meet the city's artisans in Madanpura or Khojwa, or through the lanes of any other neighbourhood, or down the ghats? We are all still waiting for the PM and his government to understand Banaras and to deliver.