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Coronavirus: The 'tin pot' RWA dictators running life in India's cities
Jun 2, 2020
Major Atul Dev, a retired Indian army veteran, is on the warpath - against his Residents' Welfare Association.
Commonly known as the RWAs, these associations are a unique feature of Indian urban living. They are responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of specific residential areas and generally set guidelines - relating to issues like security - for people to follow. Its members are elected by those living in a housing society or a neighbourhood.
But ever since India went into a lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus, many are being accused of overreach, although they say they are only acting in the interest of everyone's safety.
In recent days, the Indian press has used unflattering phrases such as "little Hitlers" and "tin pot dictators" to describe them.
Many RWAs have issued lists of dos and don'ts which run into several pages and some of their diktats have been so arbitrary that governments have had to step in to rein them in.
"It is true that some have behaved like small-time dictators, inventing their own rules, even ignoring government regulations when they regard them as too liberal," columnist Vir Sanghvi wrote in the Hindustan Times newspaper .
"Some won't allow delivery men. Others will throw out newspaper hawkers and so on. It may be a great democracy outside but within the colonies, it is often a dictatorship of pygmies," he added.
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