I am an anarchist. So is the present mayor of Reykjavik. Jón Gnarr Kristinsson is irreverent, his party parodies politics and he has a genuinely weird political agenda. But he is mayor nevertheless.
Anarchy is not a synonym for chaos, as is commonly believed. It means the absence of rule. What Kristinsson tries to do is rule with loose hands. He came into power when the Icelandic economy went into a tailspin post the sub-prime crisis. Amidst the ruins, the city’s people thought it would give an anarchist a shot at the post! Anarchy is not so bad after all, it seems. It is in any case better than bad rule. No rules, as a principle, are far better than bad rules. let us test this hypothesis.
The journey towards the discovery of the virtues of anarchy, begins, in this instance, on the pages of the websitealibaba.com (a Chinese ‘B2B’, as in business to business, portal). Google search ‘e rickshaws’ and you’ll inevitably end up checking the Alibaba site. Interestingly, the listing on the website for these battery-operated innovations intended for low cost short coverage urban transport is under the category ‘Indian e-rickshaws’. The market does not wait to assign names to things. E-rickshaws have caught on like wildfire, especially on the streets of Delhi. The bulk rate on the Chinese website is approximately $600 apiece. Once brought here, and having passes through dealers and retailers, these e-rickshaws sell for between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1,20,000.
These e-rickshaws (I’m sure they’ll soon be referred to as e-ricks in University of Delhi, where they are so popular) have swamped the city. They are eco-friendly, driven by a motor run on power from the four batteries that feed the drive train. These batteries on full charge are good for approximately 100 km. A full charge requires five hours of plug in time. At the university, these e-rickshaws have become the preferred feeder system for the metro, which ends at the Viswavidyalaya station, which is an average two km distant from various north campus colleges/departments of the university. Why are the e-rickshaws such a winning propositionIJ
The manually powered (cycle) rickshaw is an inhuman arrangement, where one person’s labour directly substitutes another’s. In Calcutta, that labour does not even have the fig leaf of a cycle traction system; it is manifest directly in the poor bloke who pulls the rickshaw. In Delhi, the scene is only somewhat better. Delhi’s distances and exacting weather render the cycle rickshaw a terrible transportation option, acceptable only in the absence of a viable alternative. The e-rickshaw provides that alternative. Its 100 km single charge range is good for an entire day’s plying. It makes two trips for everyone that the manually powered rickshaw makes. With four passengers on board (not to mention the additional two who surreptitiously slip in beside the driver) the ride from a college to the metro station is worth Rs 60 (@ Rs 10 per passenger). Since the e-rickshaw travels twice as fast (at least) as the cycle rickshaw, it earns Rs 120 for every Rs 20 that the latter earns (the equivalent ride on a cycle rickshaw costs Rs 20). In fact @ Rs 30 per km (6 passengers @ Rs 10 each over a distance of 2 km), these e-rickshaws are better earners than even taxis. The success of these e-rickshaws on our streets is a testament to anarchy!
A PIl has been filed against these e-rickshaws, claiming they are not regulated and that they cannot be covered under insurance in case of a mishap. The Government cannot regulate them because they are not covered by the Motor Vehicles Act. These wonderful e-rickshaws that are so convenient, environmentally sound and revenue earning for their owners, have arrived (frankly, they have just happened) without rules, without regulation, and without the benefit of any policy or strategy of the Government. The success of these e-rickshaws on our streets is a testament to anarchy! Their story is a little like that of the IT industry. The Government struggled to regulate it (in its early years) because IT companies had no traditional factories or inventories or even labour or capital goods. Thank God for that. No wonder the industry prospered! There are times when the lack of rules provides rich ground for enabling outcomes. Rules in this country often are responsible for chaos. Just look at Delhi, and think about the MCD and the DDA. Touché.