The bouncers on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway are telling us something

The spectacle on the Expressway is only the latest example of public authority being ceded to private enforcers

Going on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, one frequently witnesses a strange scene. The erstwhile toll plaza was removed a few years ago but there are still some toll booths in the left lanes. Just after the toll barriers, the road curves. It is here that the traffic comes to a grinding halt and there is total commotion with cars moving in and out of lanes. Worse, some cabs start reversing all the way to the toll booths. As one drives through the curve, there are several lanes being blocked by five to six mean-looking built-like-bouncers-in-a-pub men. Each of them has a baton, a hockey or a lathi in his hand and they are stopping the Uber and Ola cab drivers to ask for the toll tax which the drivers have tried to avoid. Most drivers usually pay up the Rs 100 tax plus Rs 500 fine quietly while others try to wriggle out of it by arguing. This causes the traffic to stop or inch forward for a while.

The bouncers are employed by the private agency which has won the contract to collect toll tax. The cab drivers obviously avoid paying and make the extra Rs 100 since that is included in the Ola/Uber fare. Apart from some of the risk-averse types, they take their chances with not paying or paying Rs 600. The cab drivers are perfect examples of the beloved homo economicus of the neo-classical economists. They behave in a totally rational way since they make several trips between the two cities. However, what is bizarre about the whole set up is the brazenness shown by the bouncers. They are there, right in the middle of an expressway meant for high speed transit, stopping traffic without the cops even taking notice of this patently illegal action.

But this business of taking over the functions of administration by private companies or individuals is not unique to these bouncers. They might be operating totally independently, although with the connivance of the authorities. In some cases, the authorities themselves hire private agencies to undertake what would be their work. My favourite case in point: Stray pigs are a big nuisance in several parts of my city close to villages or slum clusters, and the Municipal Corporation doesn’t have enough pig catchers, or whatever they are called. So pigs roam around freely, creating a health hazard. A few years ago, a bright young bureaucrat was appointed as the administrator of the Municipal Corporation. Faced with this problem, he came up with what seemed like a brilliant solution. He ordered that, in public interest, anyone capturing a stray pig in the city could keep the pig and the administration would not take any action. The owner, if he complains, would instead be fined for letting his animals roam around and be a health hazard.

Soon, most of the pigs vanished from the city. The pig vigilantes caught hold of a large number of pigs while some owners started tying their pigs outside their homes or jhuggis. However, in a few weeks, the pigs returned to the streets. The people who had captured the pigs sold some back to their owners. For the rest, they had no place to keep them or the means to feed them. The net result of the scheme was only a temporary change in ownership of the pigs.

Sub-contracting of governance to private citizens and agencies is now all the rage. But then, privatisation of governance is a natural corollary in these days of cow vigilantes, Valentine vigilantes, love jihad vigilantes, anti-Romeo squads etc. The only difference is that while one has official sanction, the other only benign neglect by the powers that be.

The writer is a professor of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi