Sheila Dikshit
THE CHIEF MINISTER WHO BELONGS Le CITY deluxe INDIA found the city’s longest serving first citizen in a reminiscent mood as she unearthed memories from the Capital which many moons ago was an open place, with barely any cars, and a big heart.
TEXT BY SURUCHI DUGGAL, NIKKI DUGGAL / PHOTOGRAPHED BY BHAWJEET SAWHNEY
In this legendary city of immigrants she’s got childhood memories of family picnics at Qutab Minar – “which was a day’s affair because there were no cars and you had to take a tonga”. And of that much anticipated weekly trip to Chandni Chowk. She loves her memories of those days, but doesn’t live in the past. Not that she has the time: Sheila Dikshit doesn’t have the luxury of extended reveries, or to indulge her love for the arts.
Delhi’s Chief Minister for fourteen years – a tenure unprecedented in the city’s postindependence history – spoke with Le CITY deluxe INDIA about the world-class city she wants to see.
Delhi completed 100 years as Capital in your
tenure. Do you think the city has come of age?
You were nominated for a World Mayor
Award in 2008. Were you surprised? Do
these things matter to you?
Again, I don’t know! I wish I had the time to rest on laurels! I guess when I retire, then I’ll look back and think about all these accolades that we have won for Delhi. Right now I am just so busy with the job at hand. With everyday crises, there’s no opportunity to sit back and contemplate. And all these awards are the outcome of a collective effort: the bureaucracy, the people, and the central government – all respond and have a role to play.
The Delhi Metro is definitely world-class, and is considered as one of your biggest achievements. Do you have any similar projects in the pipeline?
Delhi has changed enormously over the past decade or so since we came into power. The number of flyovers has increased to 47 from the
two or three that existed. We have widened our streets and the green cover has increased by 26 sq km to nearly 300 sq km. As of now we have seven or eight universities, around 42 government-run hospitals and plenty of new developments. Our aim is to make Delhi a world-class city. What you envisage as an ideal capital city – London, Washington, New York or Paris. We want to go a step ahead of that.
And growing up here, you obviously have
that perspective…
I’d like to think so. It’s amazing how much change has happened just in my lifetime: back in the day going to Qutab Minar for picnics was the done thing. And it would take a full day because there were hardly any cars, so you had to wait in a tonga. Or to the Matka Peer mazar which used to be near Purana Qila. I was really fascinated by that place as a girl because it was full of nothing but all these matkas. Then a trip down to Chandni Chowk itself was a great thing! We used to live on Kamraj Road and that seemed to be one end of Delhi…there was no Golf Links, or Jorbagh, or Pitampura or Punjabi Bagh.
Do you miss that?
We have our own memories but we wouldn’t
like this generation to go back to that. Every
NOV — DEC 2012
You know I’m not sure of that. Just because it’s a very old and vibrant city, with a long and chequered history, doesn’t mean it’s come of age. Change has always been a constant element in the city’s fabric. Traditionally and historically it’s always been the centre of India. And because of that, the city has always been dynamic and vibrant. Look at the nature of its population: before 1947 it was a particular kind of Dilliwalla who stayed here…representative of a very obvious, prominent Muslim culture. When the British came along, the city had a
very British culture. After the partition, the Punjabis came, and now of course we have migrations of people from Kerala, Bihar, UP, Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East. So it is a kind of a microcosm which represents India – a melting pot of the ingredients that make up this country. It has neither a static demographic, nor an unchanging culture.