Are we serious about Clean India

A verse in the Bhagvad Gita says the common man tries to emulate the actions of leaders of society. If he sees a certain kind of behaviour practised by these leaders he follows it. Thus, leaders in various fields have the chance to set an example for others to follow. Unfortunately, the type of example that one sees in public life are not of the kind one could boast about. Corruption, nepotism and criminal behaviour continue to occupy the headlines in newspapers or appear as breaking news on television.

Against this background, our Prime Minister is trying to inculcate mindsets that value public cleanliness. Following his exhortation, we see on TV leaders of society (politicians, administrators, media leaders) engaged in cleaning up nearby areas. One gets the impression that there are too many people sweeping the same area and one wonders if it might not be more effective if just one person swept a particular area. Indeed, a maidservant could have shown these VIPs how to do the sweeping properly. One gets the impression that the purpose of the exercise was not real sweeping but demonstrating to the common man as well as to the Prime Minister that these leaders were indeed conscious of the value of cleanliness.

In this background, there is a frequently shown government advertisement on TV where people are shown in well-known surroundings like Chittaranjan Avenue in Kolkata, Marina Beach in Chennai, Azad Maidan in Mumbai declaring emphatically that they would not allow anybody to litter these landmark sites. After showing such examples, the advertisement projects the Prime Minister, who tells viewers that if Indians decide to keep their country clean, there is no power on Earth that can come in their way.

Good rhetoric! But the danger to the “Clean India” project does not come from any other country: the danger lies in the mindset of us Indians. How often do we see packets of leftover food thrown out of the window of a moving car Why do we see the walls of staircases in apartment blocks carrying pictures of gods like Ganesha or Ram or some venerable public figures Why do walls on public buildings have notices on them forbidding any writing or putting of pictures on them

Take the case of a city like Mumbai. In my childhood in the closing years of the British Raj, public areas, including streets and pavements, used to be extremely clean. I recall going with my father in a taxi on Marine Drive. I was eating nuts, and after peeling off the outer shell, when a sizeable lot had accumulated, I threw them out of the taxi window. At this, my father pulled me up saying that if everybody started throwing trash on the streets, how can they be maintained in the clean state we saw them in

But what parental guidance does a child get today with regard to public cleanliness The child sees the father throw away a used pizza box, thus adding to litter. The argument in defence of this is that the street is already so heavily littered that an extra bit would not be noticed.

To see how difficult is the task the PM has set himself, here is an example! While visiting the old fort of Sajjangarh near Satara in Maharashtra, that was once the abode of saint Swami Ramdas, I happened to pass by a group of tourist families. A boy was busy carving his name on the old, historic gate. When the father spotted what his son was up to, he pulled him up with the words: “Son, why are you wasting your efforts here Reserve them for the Taj Mahal.”

In fact, the mindset that is gradually created by such “parental guidance” doesn’t lead to the kind of citizens that our Prime Minister is banking on. Our leaders often talk of converting our major cities into Singapore or Shanghai. A major hurdle to this is the change of mindset that is necessary. I got an example of it once while doing some window shopping at a Singapore mall. I was carrying an ice-cream cone and entered a shop to look at some watches on display. As I was looking at them the shopkeeper walked towards me and politely requested me to consume the ice-cream outside in the corridor, where receptacles for trash were provided. Evidently, he was anxious about the cleanliness of his shop.

As a rule, we Indians take very little pride in being law-abiding. We proudly boast how we got away with a traffic violation, we break a certain deadline and if the law is after us, we often bribe our way out of it. Indeed, often the topic of a drawing room conversation goes on the lines of “how I got away with it”.

When we were in Sao Paulo, Brazil, we noticed that every morning on a working day, a man would come and set up a portable stall to sell snacks, mostly during the recess of the nearby working population. The stall owner would also set up garbage disposal containers in which his clients would discard their trash. At the end of the day, the vendor would bring his tempo to remove the plastic liners of trash cans and carry it to a pre-designated disposal spot. Therefore, a person strolling by in the evening would not even be aware that a crowded snack stall had been there. This example suffices to appreciate the difference between those who pay lip service to public cleanliness and those who practice it.

To appreciate the need to be law-abiding, as in Singapore, we should recall the benevolent dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew, that inculcated this sense of civic discipline. But the moment our government (of whichever party) tries to do this in Lee’s manner, we will all start complaining that “this is not democratic”!

The writer, a renowned astrophysicist, is professor emeritus at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune University Campus. He was Cambridge University’s Senior Wrangler in Maths in 1959.