The first rain brought with it the blame game and allegations of corruption by political parties, yet when each one of them was in power, none attempted to clean up the badly rotting system

Hindmata, a low-lying area, badly flooded on May 26. Pic/Ashish Raje

With the onset of the monsoon, the annual ritual of making corruption allegations against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) starts, a rite that’s been observed for over two decades. Every political party and its leaders want to clean up the BMC, but not when the broom is in their hands.

Earlier, it was the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) making allegations against the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance that ruled the BMC for nearly 25 years. Now, it is the Shiv Sena (UBT) levelling similar allegations against the BJP and its alliance partner the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

This simply means that corruption is a given when it comes to Asia’s richest civic body – the BMC (Badly Managed Corporation), and the issue is not merely one of governance, but a deeper moral crisis among politicians ruling the city. 

Take the Mithi river cleanup, for example. After the devastating 2005 floods, which exposed flaws in the urban infrastructure, a committee appointed to find reasons for the crisis suggested cleaning the natural flow of Mumbai’s rivers. Nearly two decades later, the results remain the same, and the

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