Begone Beggars, Hello Clean Streets: Modi Arrives, Mumbai Transforms
Mumbai has witnessed a rare miracle. For once, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was seen working with a zeal that citizens had long stopped expecting. Streets that were clogged with garbage suddenly became spotless, beggars and hawkers disappeared overnight, and the city’s filth was hidden under carefully placed tarpaulins. The reason was not a newfound love for civic responsibility but the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His tour transformed the city into a stage-managed showcase of cleanliness and order, proving that efficiency in Indian governance is not a myth but a matter of political optics.
This phenomenon is hardly limited to Mumbai. Across India, every time a Prime Minister, President, or foreign leader sets foot in a city, the local administration suddenly rediscovers its long-buried work ethic. Potholes are filled, footpaths swept, illegal encroachments dismantled, and shanties hidden from sight. What citizens endure for years without action is fixed within days when a VIP convoy is expected. The poor, meanwhile, are treated as an inconvenience to be pushed aside for the cameras. Beggars are mysteriously removed, hawkers pushed out of sight, and slum dwellers forced to live behind blue plastic screens of official embarrassment. India’s poverty does not disappear; it is only hidden when Delhi is watching.
The irony runs deeper. BMC and similar civic bodies often cite lack of funds, resources, and manpower as excuses for their chronic inefficiency. Yet the speed with which they clean up during VIP visits proves that resources exist — what is missing is the will. For the ordinary taxpayer who battles broken infrastructure and garbage-strewn streets every day, the message is clear: you will only matter if you are part of a photo opportunity. The Swachch Bharat Mission, marketed as a citizen-driven cleanliness movement, thus shrinks into a hollow spectacle where real action is reserved for special occasions.
And so, sarcasm becomes the only honest way to describe this charade. If Modi were to visit each state once a week, India would indeed become the Swachch Bharat his government dreams about. The beggars would remain invisible, the slums would remain covered, and civic bodies would suddenly find the capacity to keep streets clean. Until then, the truth is unavoidable: India does not lack efficiency, it lacks sincerity. Local bodies work not for the people, but for the motorcade. The country’s cleanliness hack, it seems, is not civic accountability but Prime Ministerial travel.
