From a sleepy town for retirees, with its salubrious climate, Bengaluru turned its fortunes around within two decades, propelling it to be recognised as India’s Silicon Valley.

But this growth seems to have come at a cost — one that the rest of the state and its people have to pay.

For Bengaluru to keep growing, the government needs to pump funds into infrastructure, incentivise big players in science and tech to come and invest in the city and do all this while balancing its commitment to the welfare and well-being of everyone living in Karnataka.

But it took just two years for government inefficiency, corruption and political ill-will to show how messy things can be for the citizens if leaders elected from ‘outside’ end up ruling a world-class metropolis that is possibly next only to California in terms of the ambitions and quality of its workforce.

Why this apathy?

Most of Karnataka’s chief ministers emerge from different districts and regions. They saw Bengaluru as a capital where the powerful resided — just the way the Mughals and perhaps the British treated Delhi. They did love the city for how beautiful it was, its gardens, gurudwaras, and the winters. But Bengaluru is different. It was always a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society that belonged, at the same time, to nobody and everybody.

Trade and commerce existed centuries before the British arrived in the city. For politicians coming from the hinterland, Bengaluru is a good business opportunity for them to try and settle down. They invest in land, and reap the benefits of the kickbacks that they earn by helping businesses establish in the city. They are in no way incentivised to be loyal to their voters and where they come from — a major reason why Kalyana Karnataka remains so backwards on social and economic indices.

Today, because Bengaluru grabs so much attention, the rest of the regions are being ignored. Leaders emerging from Bidar or Bidanur simply do not care about doing anything for their constituents, they lack vision, they lack the commitment and the drive to think of big and bold ideas — something that the younger generation of voters are expecting from their........

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