Comment

Thane consumer court has recently upheld a Vashi resident's right to use his housing society's elevator - the said resident is an 11-year-old infirm Labrador. The owner of the ageing pet is delighted by the judgment, not least because it vindicates his stand that the society was being unfair and foolish in denying the dog an unexceptionable facility.

The owner's sentiments are intelligible. The society was demonstrating an irrational loathing for pets, of course. But what appals me is that the neighbours were exercised by a molehill of dog hair when housing societies across Mumbai have real problems which amount to a mountain of dog poop.

In August this year, a 70-year-old Andheri (E) resident was murdered in a housing society equipped with attack alarms and guarded by sentries who recorded every visitor's entry. In March, a 62-year-old woman who lived alone was slaughtered in her Gorai apartment. You think these are recent aberrations that presaged the 26/11 butchery? Let me tell you that there is no way you can blame Pakistan for this.

These crimes are triggered, and sometimes encouraged, by neighbours who are indifferent to each other all the time - except when something as significant as loud conversation provokes a general body meeting. I say this churlishly, but with certitude, because much before south Mumbai bloodied front pages of newspapers across the world, Jay Mahal Cooperative Housing Society in the tony Churchgate was the site of a double murder. A 94-year-old man and his 86-year-old wife were killed by their household help who had been hired without police verification.

As I argued a few columns ago, housing societies would be better served by focusing on strict police verification of tenants rather than by denying accommodation to single people or to members of certain faiths. Tolerance is being eroded because many of these societies function as fiefs of dictatorial committee members. It may be hyperbolic to compare an authoritarian housing society with Pakistan. But the overreach allows you to draw instructive parallels. As democracy is throttled, a tiny cabal takes over.

The cabal is interested in no more than self-preservation, so the interests of the larger group is neglected. But the larger group, remains silent because what matters to it is a no-hassle life. In the circumstances, authoritarianism breeds arbitrariness, because nobody is bold enough to ask questions. In the end, such a society is easily able to ban music, dogs, certain kinds of dress, and faiths. That intolerance opens cracks between one society and another. Mohammad Ajmal Amir and his friends are born in those cracks.