Street jurisprudence

Some time a seemingly minor incident carries with it a much larger implication. On Sunday a BJP leader led a group of  activists who disrupted the toll collection on Delhi’s DND flyway, connecting Delhi to Noida. This is not the first time such a demonstration and disruption had taken place. Various protest “morchas” have been formed and re-worked over the years to demand the dismantling of the toll collection arrangement. It is perhaps not irrelevant to mention that much of the political energy in Noida is fuelled by the requirements of real-estate developers. Alignments among district-level leaders invariably get rearranged as per the developers’ tactical preferences. These “morchas” are also demanding a voice in the working of the Noida authority.  They think they have a right to disrupt the toll collection.  The disruptionists’ argument is that the private company has collected by way of toll more than what it had spent on constructing the expressway as part of a private-public partnership contract. The BJP activists accuse the private company of cooking the account books, paying hefty salaries to its senior executives, and otherwise delaying the transfer of the project to the local authority. 

A resident welfare association has taken the dispute to the Allahabad High Court. The matter is sub-judice. It is possible that there may be serious infirmities in the legal framework of the first private-public-partnership road facility. The deficiencies can only be addressed by a court of law and not be any street jurisprudence. It is one thing for representatives of civil society to boisterously make their point of view heard; it is not exactly the done thing for them to resort to disruptive demonstrations and pressure tactics of the street. The state government may find it prudent to let the mobs rule the highway but this cannot be very reassuring to the global investor who is being so assiduously courted by the Modi government. At the national level the BJP leadership should be worried about the larger issues — ease of doing business, lawful governance, fair and timely adjudication of disputes, etc. Economic activity in India cannot be seen to be hostage to capricious mobs.