The Shivraj Patil of Delhi : Shiela Dixit

It is strange that for continuously 11 yrs , Mrs Shiela Dixit has been running the government and emerged stronger after every election. To a naive it might seem like the victory of the development politics while to the uninitiated it may be attributed to the fault of the opposition of not being able to provide a viable alternative.
Lets try to put things in perspective and dispassionately analyzse where she has struck the nail . To begin with Delhi , the capital of India always had the first mover advantage. For it represented the pride of India and any foreign dignitary carried the impression that Delhi left on the indelible memory. Successive governments therefore never reined in the purse strings to make Delhi a truly world class city. Infact it acted as a magnet for the whole of North India, where the Human Development Index is such abysmally low that people immigrate to Delhi in search of menial jobs and even worse inhuman living conditions.No wonder the the civic infrastructure was bound to crumble and it did. So why is Mrs Dikshit still a favorite ? This is where the messy politics comes in ... it is deflection of the responsibilty to MCD which is being run by the opposition.
Coming to taking credits , she can even put to shame the left leaders who attribute the financial thawing rather than fearful meltdown to their adamant aggressive agenda while being an outside supporter of UPA. Mrs Dikshit , without blinking takes all the credit for Delhi Metro whicj is unjust considering the fact it is a corporation that is solely out of the purview of government and is run as another corporation. On the issue of transportation , sh undoubtedly has done a good job of constructing one flyover after another and following it with one over the other. But the essence of flyoever is smooth traffic flow and despite her best claims it is not the cure to the problem. Turning to security , she has been crying hoarse of granting Delhi complete statehood to solve the policing issues. One minute .. who is stopping you when you have your very own government at the centre ? Has the delhi assembly even taken the first step to make the recommendation?
Coming to amenities like Electricity , Water and Sanitation, the situation is just not upto the mark . Privatisation of distribution and transmission at the heavy cost of subsidization is not eliminating wastage but transferring annual losses to annual subsidy grants to the private players.
On public transportation front , Bluelines still continue to be meance and despite her rhetoric of banning bluelines they continue to play havoc with lives of road user. DTC , supposed to be the public carrier is not even in the fray of being near a probable alternative to private vehicles. Though new busues are being bought for the government is flush with funds , thanks mainly to VAT , Service taxes , and Income Tax fear that the government has been on a splurging spree.
Housing problem still remains acute with satellite towns the only option to buy flats as the DDA has not lived upto its duty of constructing dwellings to fills the increasingly widening demand supply deficit. Even the much hyped Commonwealth Games is turnig out to be a farce . The preparations are grossly inadequate , the misaapropriation of funds in anyones's guess and the damage to the environment is irrevocable. On the environment , the credit goes to supreme court for sticking to its stand and making all the public transport vehicle srun on CNG. I will tell you something intersting , you just take a Bluline bus , get into a convival consersation with the consuctor and the startling facts start revealing. The owners of blueline buses operate as proteges politicians and police officers which is refelcted in their utter disdain for the law.
On the edcation front , the government might be making big promises but the ground reality remains shak a laka. If you just keep in mind the small geogriphical area , the massive funds generated and correlate the commensurate development you can realize the enormity of the sham. And Delhi voters being the most gullible , naive , scoring lowest on the maturuty index just play subservient to the cunning ways of Mrs Dikshit.