This refers to the editorial, “India's drowning glory” (September 1). The deluge of ‘manageable’ proportions in Mumbai gave us an occasion to ponder on a few truths. The impoverished, living in low-lying areas were the worst hit and the affluent living in posh parts of the city faced no difficulties. Thus, reiterating that poverty enhances the vulnerability to the vagaries of nature. People who depend on ‘daily labours’ for their livelihood, especially, unskilled immigrants, who hire themselves as cheap labour, were left to bear the brunt of the floods.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is reputed to be the richest civic body. But when it comes to keeping residents safe from the furies of nature, it abdicates responsibility. The obstinate problem of rampant corruption in the BMC, now run by the Shiv Sena-BJP combination, explains why the country’s financial capital is in a state of neglect. Our existing cities must be made fit for human habitation before forming ‘smart cities’. Human adaptability and resilience come to play in adverse circumstances and they did admirably in the megalopolis. Community kitchens and other such doors thrown open to the stranded people for shelter showed the large-heartedness and altruism of Mumbaikars and formed a study in the essential goodness of human nature.