‘Peoples’ mindset has to change to accommodate the future’

 Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has transformed the face of Delhi in her 10-year reign, is hopeful that she would be judged by her work and she could face the electorate with her head held high. On a sunny May afternoon in her official residence, Dikshit spoke with Sanjay Kapoor about her struggle to make Delhi a city that India could be proud of.

Looking at newspapers today, one gets the impression that there is always chaos in Delhi. Is it because of the growing 'tabloidification' of the media or is there really a lot happening?

With all due respect to the media, I personally feel a lot of attention is being given to all that is sensational or negative. For instance, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme is experiencing problems in implementation, but it's not that we are not trying to sort it out. As for sealing of buildings in Delhi, people seem to forget that this is being done by the courts. No administration, or no one, for that matter, can disobey the courts. Why has the court taken this issue up? Because there is either a PIL or there has been a weak implementation of law, and people have also violated the law. There seems to be an absence of balanced thinking. It is not as if all of Delhi is being pulled down. The BRT is only a 5.5 km stretch. Everybody seems to have forgotten the chaos that takes place at ITO or Pitampura or any other crossing. You also have to look at the percentage of people who are going to benefit and opposed to those that will be affected negatively. If an unauthorised construction is pulled down, five or maybe ten people will get affected, but there are many more people who thank us because such constructions caused them a lot of inconvenience. The majority always remains silent, or its voice is not heard. I must confess media reporting today is different from what it was a few years ago. I get 28 newspapers every day, and sometimes it seems the headlines say one thing while the content says something else. Only headlines sell a paper. The rest of the content does not matter.

Do these newspapers have a motive?

Well, take the campaign against the BRT corridor. Most newspapers attribute their stories to a senior official or a senior policeman or a senior minister, who is never named. I find it suspicious.

But do you think certain lobbies or automobile manufacturers are opposing the BRT as it would give precedence to the public transport system rather than individual vehicles?

It could be. I won't say anything without having any evidence. But there are people who are not bothered about the 60 per cent bus commuters who are going to benefit from the BRT. They are very worried about their own comfort. If you look at the BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar, it has cows, buffaloes, goats and hawkers all over. It has a shopping arcade too, where people have extended their shops on to the service lane. So the situation is complicated. There is more traffic coming from Gurgaon who are trying to avoid the payment of Rs 30 that has to be paid for the new toll plaza. Five to ten thousand cars are diverted on to this road. This is why there is so much traffic there. There has to be a change in our culture and in the way we need to think of the future. And what is happening with BRT is similar to what we experienced when we tried to bring in CNG or the Metro. There is going to be some dissatisfaction in the beginning, but we have to find out who is dissatisfied. And I can only say that we took up what was the best for the people.