Political parties’ HQ needn’t be in city centre

BENGALURU: The Congress party’s desire to have a well-located party office in Belagavi has brought it in direct conflict with the BJP, which is also eying the same – a coveted plot of land. And, expectedly, it has raised the hackles of MES, which is objecting to either of them getting the said site. Recently, the JD(S) in Bengaluru has also been on a party-office-finding spree, wherein it wants a good-sized piece of land in the heart of the city.Which brings us to the moot question: Why should the government allot political parties covetous public property in the city-centre, for a paltry amount at that? This, when the trend nationally is running in the opposite direction.
The city corporation should follow the diktat of the Supreme Court which has ruled that in New Delhi all political parties should move out of the Lutyens Bunglow Zone and shift to alternate sites allotted to them elsewhere in the capital. The issue came to the fore when the Union government served notice on the Congress party asking it to vacate four properties, including its Akbar Road head office in Delhi, earlier this month. As per the SC ruling, parties have to shift to alternate land allotted to them within three years of taking possession. Though the Congress, as per the law, had to vacate its Akbar Road office by June 2013, it didn’t do so. Obviously, being in power helped it stay in the salubrious Lutyens zone. The BJP took possession of the alternate land parcel in 2014, hence got time till 2017 to move from its Ashoka Road perch.
In Bengaluru, both the Congress and BJP have party offices in the heart of the city; on land leased to them from the city corporation. Hence, the JD(S) feels justified in asking for similar accommodation. But as its office search shows, it isn’t easy to find the right fit. The last parcel identified by it ran afoul of regulations as it was a civic amenity site and being in a residential area, attracted the wrath of residents who didn’t want their life disrupted by the presence of a political party and all the baggage it carries. In an entitled environment where public servants and other arms of officialdom feel it’s their birthright to occupy prime real estate in the guise of being closer to their place of work and, at the same time, push ordinary people further and further away from the city centre due to escalating land prices, parties should set the trend and move out. It’s time they felt the pain too: Of poor transport connectivity, endless traffic jams and the enormous amount of time wasted in commute.