Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru in-charge D K Shivakumar has a novel cure for the capital city's crumbling roads, endless traffic jams, and mountains of garbage, by pointing out that other cities are also a mess. London, Delhi, take your pick. Why bother fixing Bengaluru when you can prove that the rest of the world is equally miserable?

It is a clever form of civic spin: your city is broken? Congratulations, you are in global company. Of course, traffic snarls and potholes are not an exclusive Bengaluru feature, but here is the catch: in London, the potholes are fixed within days; in Bengaluru, they become permanent fixtures. In other cities, garbage segregation is mandated and monitored; in Bengaluru, it fuels an entire “garbage mafia” economy that survives multiple govern

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