India's Smart Cities Mission: The Beginning of Corporate Takeover of the Nation State

Abstract

Within four months of the announcement of the ‘Smart Cities Mission’ in June 2015, the government of India, on 10th November 2015, has announced a bundle of changes in the foreign direct investment (FDI) rules for 15 sectors -including retail, defense, construction, banking and electronic media . And 100% FDI has been allowed in the ‘management of townships and malls’. This piece tries to narrate. in brief, how, during the last one and a half decades, successive governments have created a conducive atmosphere, by amending and enacting existing and new municipal acts, for direct foreign interventions in Indian cities, the ‘engines of growth’, of the nation. During 17th century the East India Company (EIC) came to do business in India. Eventually they became the ruler of the land. The piece ends with an apprehension of repetition of the same history of corporate takeover of the state power in 21st century. The British legacy continued even after their formal departure. The clientele group, they had created comprising of comprador business class and western educated elites, now look after the interest of the global capital by turning the rural India (Bharat) into an internal colony of modern India. This clientele class now lives and dies for FDI and foreign technology as they have totally lost their traditional knowledge. Smart Cities Mission is just an arrogant statement of these colonial forces and their office bearers.