Fake Narratives Threaten to Derail Mumbai’s Civic Mandate
By Gajanan Khergamker
As Mumbai prepares for the 2025 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the stakes could scarcely be higher. The contest is not merely a political skirmish for civic control—it is a defining moment for India’s financial capital, where the quality of governance determines the daily rhythms of life for millions. Even before a single vote is cast, the electoral discourse is being smothered by a deluge of misinformation, digital propaganda, and partisan posturing, threatening to obscure the very issues that most urgently concern Mumbaikars.
The BMC, Asia’s wealthiest municipal body with a budget surpassing several Indian states, regulates the veins of the metropolis: water supply, sanitation, drainage, roads, traffic, and green spaces. Its decisions ripple across every neighbourhood, from high-rises in South Mumbai to the sprawling informal settlements of Dharavi.
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| The city’s governance, infrastructure and civic dignity hang in the balance |
And yet, instead of structured debates about civic planning and accountability, the city’s online discourse is dominated by doctored visuals, viral forwards, and emotive posts that exploit fear, nostalgia, and outrage.
A-Ward sees its own struggles. The ₹103 crore “beautification” audits, intended to restore public spaces, have been twisted into claims of corruption, with online narratives suggesting ghost expenditures and phantom projects. Residents, seeking accountability on mundane yet vital issues, streetlights, drainage repairs, and road resurfacing, find themselves lost amid viral outrage, their real grievances drowned in digital noise.
In Colaba, the contradictions of Mumbai are on vivid display. The proposed ₹229 crore Gateway Jetty project, intended to decongest maritime traffic, has become a lightning rod for controversy. Genuine environmental concerns have been reframed into memes suggesting the city’s heritage is under siege. Photoshopped images of massive piers looming over the Gateway of India circulate with alarmist captions, converting nuanced civic discussion into spectacle.
The northern suburbs present yet another challenge. In Andheri and Bandra, traffic snarls have become routine, turning commute into a daily ordeal. Online narratives, often designed to provoke anger, blame administrative apathy or political rivals without context, while structural issues—narrow roads, poorly maintained flyovers, inadequate traffic management—remain unaddressed. Potholes, flooding, and public transport inadequacies compound the problem, yet social media chatter turns practical concerns into partisan ammunition.
In Chembur and Powai, water shortages remain a persistent concern. Despite careful municipal planning, irregular supply and bursting pipelines force residents into daily uncertainty. Instead of deliberating on sustainable water distribution and infrastructure investment, viral posts exaggerate the problem into conspiracies of “mass neglect” or “corporate theft of water,” eroding faith in civic institutions.
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The fate of Aarey epitomises Mumbai’s ecological dilemma. Tree-felling, land-use disputes and encroachments transformed this green lung into a symbol of digital polarisation. Every sapling cut, every proposed construction, is reframed online as an existential crisis, often detached from the complex socio-economic and infrastructural imperatives driving these decisions. Citizens witness neither nuanced debate nor solutions-oriented discussion, only outrage engineered for virality.
Even Dharavi and other informal settlements face distorted narratives. Slum rehabilitation schemes, critical to equitable urban development, are weaponised into sensational stories alleging fund misappropriation. The nuances of relocation, resettlement, and civic service delivery are replaced by clickable headlines and emotionally charged forwards. The residents’ real struggles—access to sanitation, safe water, and secure housing—fade behind the roar of online spectacle.
This is not mere political theatre—it is the systematic erosion of civic reasoning. Each viral forward, each manipulated image, is designed to evoke emotion rather than critical thought. Facts are no longer tools for accountability but props in a theatre of outrage, and repetition confers legitimacy. Traditional journalism, stretched thin, struggles to compete with the velocity and virality of these digital distortions.
The post-Shiv Sena political landscape has exacerbated the fragmentation. Mumbai’s once-personal political culture, where residents could directly engage with corporators, has given way to faceless algorithmic campaigning. Manifestos are replaced by memes, civic plans by outrage, and pragmatism by polarisation. The electorate, previously defined by critical engagement, now faces a sophisticated ecosystem of digital manipulation designed to distract, divide, and inflame.
The city’s tangible issues continue to remain undeniable: chronic monsoon flooding across Malad and Andheri; potholes and degraded roads everywhere from South Mumbai to Kurla; traffic congestion paralysing Bandra, Dadar, and Eastern suburbs; erratic water supply in Chembur and Powai; tree-felling controversies in Aarey; slum rehabilitation and housing delays in Dharavi; solid waste management crises in Bhandup and Ghatkopar.
These are the issues that affect daily life, yet they struggle to surface in civic discourse because digital falsehoods dominate attention.
The 2025 BMC elections, therefore, are no longer only about political victory, they are a test of Mumbai’s collective discernment. Will voters elect leaders committed to fixing potholes, unclogging drains, ensuring water supply, protecting green spaces, and managing traffic sustainably—or those who master the art of digital deception? The city’s governance, infrastructure, and civic dignity hang in the balance.
For Mumbai, the existential question is clear: what will survive—truth, or the relentless torrent of misinformation threatening to engulf it? If fact cannot pierce the fog of fabricated outrage, even the most pressing civic crises, from potholes to water scarcity, traffic chaos to ecological loss, may remain unresolved, buried beneath the debris of viral theatre.
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