| The crime, the Covid, the politics and the potholes: Capital Letters — Keeping track of Delhi's week, one beat at a time, through the eyes and words of HT's My Delhi section, with all the perspective, context and analysis you need. Good morning! I was suitably informed last week that Capital Letters had taken on quite the doomsday avatar, a claim that's not entirely unfounded. But the past few weeks were, unfortunately really quite grim for Delhi, on several fronts. Still, the message is duly considered, and so this Monday, we'll go back a hundred years. Delhi University turned a century old last Sunday, in quite the milestone not just for the institution, but also Delhi for itself. The university and Delhi's time as the capital are just separated by 11 years (the capital was shifted from Calcutta in 1911 and DU was founded in 1922), and their evolutions trod similar paths. So, it's useful to redraw the arc that DU has followed over the last century to understand the many ways Delhi has metamorphosed, from its nascency as the seat of the British empire, through Independence, to the cosmopolitan hub we know today. In a quite unmissable five-part series, HT's Metro section took a deep-dive into the history of DU, retracing the circumstances that gave birth to the capital's first university (given that then Bombay, Calcutta and Madras had varsities of their own), and the many benchmarks it has set since then. In the first part, Manoj Sharma looks at how neglected Delhi's fortunes changed in 1911 after being anointed the capital of the Empire, and argues that getting a university not only helped the city grab a spot on India's higher-learning map but also gave a nervous capital a solid foundation to educate its growing populace. Read here. "For the next decade [from 1922], the university, which initially functioned from the Ritz cinema building at Kashmere Gate, did not have a permanent campus. In fact, when Lutyens planned New Delhi, the site for a university was allotted where the Kasturba Gandhi Marg is located today. It was anointed Great College Street, but the plan was later dropped."  (Click to expand) In the second, Paras Singh, Hemani Bhandari, Jasjeev Gandhiok and Sadia Akhtar, went back to the earliest four constituent colleges of Delhi University – St Stephen's, Hindu, Delhi College and Ramjas. Each of them predated DU, but accurately reflect the city's constant evolution. The four had their roots in the Walled City, the "nerve centre of pre-Independence era Delhi, and home to the traditional business communities which had the resources and the drive to establish institutions for the next generation." Read here. "The movement for India's Independence also formed an integral part of the genesis of these colleges as it was the era of awakening – the time when India was not just claiming freedom from colonial rule but also developing the vision to prepare itself to handle and build an independent nation. Education, no wonder, was the focal point of this activity." Part three explores a seemingly innocuous dinner that eventually spawned one of India's premier economics colleges – the Delhi School of Economics. Once DSE (known also as D School) found its feet, it opened the gates for similar institutes of excellence, which "attracted the best teachers and researchers from across the world, and consequently the best students, who went on to contribute immensely to nation-building." Read here. In the fourth part, Sadia Akhtar explored DU's transition from a university that hosted few women (and that had few mechanisms to bridge this disparity) to one that now has some of India's best all-women colleges. Starting with IP College in 1924, the university's stand-alone women's colleges set the template for a more inclusive, hesitant campus, which now spans the breadth of an ever-growing city. Read here. "A lot of young boys said they did not want the college to become co-educational, arguing that it will ruin the culture. But this was only a laddish kind of awkwardness, since everyone also came from single-sex schools," said Supriya Guha, from Miranda House's 1975 batch. She was among 45 women who were part of a batch of 1,100. And in the final act of the series, Fareeha Iftikhar and Risha Chitlangia outlined the intricate relationship between DU, its students' union and national politics. Some of the country's tallest leaders carved a national space for themselves, after cutting their teeth in the battlefield of DU's student elections. From the freedom struggle, the JP movement, the anti-Mandal Commission protests back in the day to more modern issues like the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the DUSU student polls have often set the tone for the country's conversations. Read here. |
| Delhi's two key policy moves The Delhi government made two important policy choices this week. The first: making bus rides across the city free for the city's labour workers. The move came more than two years since the state made bus rides free for women – a choice that was widely welcomed, and has since been vital in easing mobility for roughly half the city's population. The scheme is expected to benefit an estimated 1.2 million such workers in Delhi and around a million of them are already registered with the state construction workers' welfare board. Raj Kumar, a painter, said he has to take three buses to get to work every day and that increased his travel expenses. "As a result, I have to think twice before spending money on my family's needs. But now I can do it with ease. I plan to use my savings for family outings and small investments," he said. A senior official said the workers' welfare board will bear the cost of the pass and pay DTC. Workers will be given a quarterly pass, and can sign up on the DTC website or at one of the 34 registration booths. The second major policy change: Changing its popular power subsidy programme from a universal offering to an opt-in scheme. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal last week said that starting October 1, the power subsidy offered by the Delhi government will not automatically apply on the electricity bills of eligible consumers, but only for those who specifically opt for the waiver. "Delhi is no longer 'Mughlon ki sarai', it is the country's capital," Gupta said. There are 5,818,231 total electricity connections in Delhi. The Delhi government provides power subsidies to five categories of consumers — domestic consumers (4.69 million), anti-Sikh riot victims (758 consumers), agricultural consumers (10,676), and lawyers (4,899) whose chambers are within the court complex. The number of subsidised connections totals to 4,716,075 consumers across all categories. Domestic consumers in Delhi get subsidies in two forms. Those consumers who use up to 200 units a month are given a 100% waiver (there are 3,039,766 such consumers at the moment. Consumers who use 201-400 units are given up to ₹800 in subsidy (there are 1,659,976 such consumers). |
| BJP leader's arrest sets off interstate tussle On Friday, an inter-state drama pitted police against police, involved a highway interception and an urgent high court hearing, and culminated in protests and a political war of words. BJP youth wing leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was detained by Punjab Police from his Delhi home and was brought back by cops from the Capital hours later. Then, on Saturday, the drama went a step ahead, as the Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday night stayed Bagga's arrest after a local court in Mohali issued an arrest warrant against him. Bagga was being sought by the Punjab Police for a case registered over remarks that purported to threaten Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal. The crux of the row between the Punjab and Delhi police appears to be over a protocol that requires police to inform local law enforcement while apprehending a suspect from another state, and set off serious questions about the jurisdictional powers of state forces, the tenets of cooperative federalism, and the link between party politics and policing. |
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