Rain Reckoning

When rains flood Mumbai every year, a government is supposed to respond with action, not excuses. Instead, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde blamed the early monsoon for throwing Mumbai’s infrastructure off-kilter. The absurdity of blaming nature for bureaucratic failure is only rivalled by the city’s continued suffering.

If the rains were supposed to schedule an appointment with Shinde before arriving, they clearly missed the memo. But his comment did more than just insult meteorology; it exposed instead the galling lack of preparedness, foresight and accountability of the Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra.

Mumbai, India’s financial nerve centre, goes through the same wet trauma every year. It floods. Local trains stop. Roads vanish under water. And every time, ministers – regardless of the party (or parties) in power - step forward to offer the same ritualistic defence that the rain was unseasonal, unprecedented, or, as in this case, early.

To call this farce a ‘monsoon surprise’ is to pretend that history hasn’t been repeating itself for decades. This year’s chaos began with the first proper downpour itself as suburban railway services, particularly the Harbour line, collapsed under the weight of poor drainage and sodden infrastructure. Central Railway cancelled more than 50 trains while Western Railway shelved 18. The Acharya Atre metro station was rendered unusable. Whole neighbourhoods plunged into darkness, including parts of the upscale Napeansea Road. In a city that prides itself on grit and endurance, this was a familiar and exhausting déjà vu.

The problem was not when the rains came, but that nothing meaningful was done to prepare for them. Desilting of drains, a task that successive administrations claim to take seriously, was by all evidence either incomplete, ineffective or both. The newly constructed metro stations, touted as beacons of urban progress, could not even withstand their first monsoon shower.

This should prompt not excuses but resignations. The irony is rich. This is a government that has never shied away from ambitious infrastructural proclamations. Bullet trains, coastal roads, smart cities – the Mahayuti has mastered the art of grandiose proclamations and ribbon cuttings. But when it comes to protecting its citizens from ankle-deep water turning into waist-high peril, it shrugs.

In any functioning democracy, a government is expected to plan for the predictable. The monsoon is predictable. So is Mumbai’s vulnerability to it. The Mahayuti government, by failing to act on that knowledge, has signalled its own ineptitude and disregard for the city’s residents. Citizens are not asking for miracles. They are asking for working pumps, cleared drains, functioning trains and power that does not vanish with every cloudburst.

Instead, they are given rhetoric and blame-shifting. The rains are the new scapegoats. If only clouds could vote, the government might bother to listen. Until then, Mumbai will do what it always does - trudge, curse and carry on. But the electorate knows that for all the flooded metro stations and power failures, the monsoon did not fail Mumbai. Its leaders did.