Why the Mumbai attacks are not a poll issue

The view from Delhi is often blinkered. Pundits in India's capital smugly pontificate on the country's politics and the direction it is taking. Delhi is a bully pulpit for its politicians, journalists, NGOs and commentators alike; they tell us what is good and bad for the rest of the country. Very often, it makes for dodgy perception. Delhi's take on India also leads to a lot of myth making, not unusual in a complex society like India.

I am reminded of this again when I go visiting Kumar Ketkar, Mumbai's most respected journalist. Mr Ketkar edits a mass circulation Marathi newspaper and is a scholar. He sits in a small office in the shadow of the looming Oberoi hotel towers on the seafront. The hotel was one of the places targeted during last November's attacks.

It is early evening and Mr Ketkar's newsroom is buzzing with activity. Polls are a little more than a day away, and the editor is bemused by some of the reports emanating from Delhi. Maharashtra - of which Mumbai is the capital - is a politically important state; it sends 48 MPs to parliament.

Still, as Mr Ketkar says, the national (that is, Delhi) media is obsessed by Mumbai. It is speculating that a Maharashtra leader who also runs India's cricket is a dark horse prime ministerial candidate. It is overflowing with stories on how the young in Mumbai are "rocking the vote" because they feel insecure after last November's attacks.

"Sometimes it feels like Maharashtra doesn't exist beyond Mumbai," says Mr Ketkar, grinning. "Mumbai just dominates the perceptions about Maharashtra, it overshadows Maharashtra."

It's a compelling thought. No other city in India, I agree, dominates a state so much. It is the country's financial capital and home to one of the world's busiest film industries, its best-known, best-selling English pulp writer and many such "beautiful people", as India's media lovingly call them. The only city which comes close is Delhi. But the self-obsessed capital is only a boring city state.

It's time for Mr Ketkar to burst some myths. We begin with last November's attacks and how it will affect polling on Thursday.

"Not a soul is bothered about the November attacks outside Mumbai. Even in parts of Mumbai it is not an issue. I'd even say that outside south Mumbai (the posh part of the city where the attacks took place) it is not much of an election issue at all," the genial editor says.

Mr Ketkar says that if the governing Congress party loses the vote in Maharashtra, it will be despite the November attacks. A few years ago, floods killed more than 600 people in Mumbai. People drowned in the filthy rising waters, and suffocated inside their stranded cars. Relatively rich farmers have taken their lives by the hundred - battered by debt, failed crops and low prices. But in the dystopic world of breaking news, only the last big story matters.

Ordinary people I talk to here bemoan the "complete non-performance" of the lacklustre Congress party here for the past 10 years. "It is a lost decade for Maharashtra," Mr Ketkar says. "Nothing much happened here. So the Mumbai attacks will not be a deciding factor."

The killings, suggests Mr Ketkar, may be only a factor in upscale south Mumbai where the rich and "beautiful people" live. But the problem is that it is also the most politically alienated constituency in the country - not so long ago, it recorded a lowly 29% turnout in a general election. South Mumbai long ago seceded from the republic of India, in a manner of speaking. The rich here don't really need the government. "They live," as Mr Ketkar, says "with one foot in Mumbai, and the other in New York." The poor need the government more, and Mumbai is overflowing with them.

So what does Mumbai's 26/11 stand for then? I ask Mr Ketkar. Surely, it cannot but leave some imprint on the people and their lives?

"The attacks stand for the rejuvenation of Mumbai's middle class. The city has always had an indifferent middle class. The attacks will possibly prod more middle class Mumbai residents to go out and vote this time. But that will not have any bearing on the final result. No way."

Today's morning papers echo Mr Ketkar's sentiments. "Will Mumbai come out and vote?" asks a front page headline. Last election, less than half of the registered voters cast their ballots. "The Mumbai voter is in an aggressive mood, desperate for change. One hopes it translates into a record turnout on the 30th. I have my doubts," a prominent citizen tells the newspaper.

Mr Ketkar says there is no use being obsessed with the Mumbai votes. And there is more to Mumbai than the attacks, he says, which will be engaging the voters. People are disillusioned with the Congress government, he says, because it is seen as lackadaisical and disinterested. After the siege of the Taj hotel ended last November, the former chief minister took his film actor son and a filmmaker friend to see the devastation at the hotel. The filmmaker was apparently scouring for ideas for his next film. The press dubbed it "disaster tourism". The chief minister lost his job.

Then there is an anti-migrant workers movement whipped up by a local xenophobic party which wants jobs for locals - a "lot of political nuisance really", Mr Ketkar says. The perceived marginalisation of the local Marathi people - who comprise more than 40% of the city's population - is a real issue. The city is bursting at its seams, and constant mention of its fabled "resilience" by the national media irritates the locals no end.

So is Mumbai a curse for Maharashtra, in a sense? "In a sense, yes," Mr Ketkar says, before rushing off to a meeting. "It is a curse." I would say Mumbai is both a blessing and a curse.

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