daughter of south mumbai

“Do you know Mumbai contributes 33 per cent of income tax collections, 60 per cent of customs duty collections, 20 per cent of central excise tax collections, 40 per cent of India’s foreign trade and a significant quantum to corporate taxes? For such a prosperous city, how can we be content with a withering transport system and lagging public amenities?” she questions. Like any good banker, she obviously keeps her numbers handy.

meera sanyal isn't contesting the mumbai municipal elections. what can she do about mumbai's withering transport system and lagging public amenities, that she talks about, in the lok sabha? there'd be very few occasions on which she could raise those issues at a forum where primarily national or international issues are discussed.

Like a million other Mumbaikars, Meera Sanyal too watched the horror of 26/11 unfold on her television screen — all within the confines of her safe haven at Malabar Hill. But unlike a million other Mumbaikars who went back to work after those horrifying few days, Sanyal could not shake off the feeling of being cheated.

The 47-year-old, who heads ABN-Amro Bank in India, was up against difficult choices: “Either I could sit back and blame the politicians and move on or I could pull up my sleeves and get on the ground to do something about it,” she says.

security. she can get on the ground to do something about it. how?

she can raise questions: the first hour of each day in the lok sabha is devoted to questions.

It is during the Question Hour that the members can ask questions on every aspect of administration and Governmental activity. Government policies in national as well as international spheres come into sharp focus as the members try to elicit pertinent information during the Question Hour.

all the other 540 odd members too have the same right to raise questions. so one has to queue up. but the lok sabha worked for just 46 days last year. it usually works a little more, but the number has been falling since the first parliament. so ms.sanyal would have to share those 50 odd question hours with 540 odd other members, many of who, as we have seen in the last two-three lok sabhas would rather raise slogans and placards during the question hour than questions. so many question hours might pass before ms.sanyal actually gets to ask any questions.

by which time, the taj mahal in mumbai might be attacked again. if such an unfortunate event does happen again, and when a lok sabha is in session, ms.sanyal might get lucky and be able to call attention of the home minister of that matter of urgent public importance and request him to make a statement by giving a notice to the Secretary General, Lok Sabha, first. would that help prevent the next attack on mumbai?

perhaps she could raise the issue of mumbai's security through an adjournment motion by giving notice to the speaker and the minister concerned, to get answers faster because they are taken up for discussion on the same day. but a lot of adjournment motions are brought in every day, and only one member gets to be lucky, if at all, provided he manages to convince the speaker that the purpose of the motion is to initiate discussion on a definite matter of urgent public importance. and security in mumbai, or anywhere for that matter, is a definite matter of urgent public importance, but something bal thackeray said, a day earlier, or m.f.hussain painted, decades earlier might crowd the urgency out of that matter of public importance. other members who had issued notices too might sit in the well of the house and create pandemonium forcing the speaker to adjourn the house.

i hope ms.sanyal has an actionable business plan.