When the Prime Minister inaugurated the latest upgraded version of Vande Bharat train recently, A senior railway official proudly briefed the reporters about the “superior” features of the train, which would provide passengers with an “aircraft-like travelling experience”, including reclining seats, automatic fire sensors, CCTV cameras, Wi-fi and claimed that India has made a huge leap into the future of mass transportation.

At the flagging-off ceremony, the Prime Minister even went on to say that ;

“People who are used to travelling on flights will prefer the Vande Bharat now”.

These are India’s first indigenous semi-high-speed trains under the ‘Make in India’ initiative and surely, we all must be proud of our engineers and technicians for this feat.

However, in our politically vitiated society where everything is seen from the prism of politics, we need to look at this achievement objectively.

Train Vis a Vis Flight.

One. Travelling by any train has some advantages over flying. Trains take you straight into the heart of the city. So, you reach home or the work place, very soon after getting down from the train. Whereas, the airports are far away and getting out of the airport, collecting the luggage itself consumes an hour almost.

Two. You don’t have to reach a train station hours before to check-in - drop off bags - clear security and wait in queue to board. So, there is surely a Time advantage.

Three. Trains are usually a lot cheaper.

These advantages have often been overlooked and people preferred flying because ;

  Alpha . the trains are slow and often run late. Usually, an Indian Express trains take anything from 8-12 hours to cover approx 700-800 kms of distance, whereas the flight would take less than two hours to cover the same distance.            

Bravo. The trains and railway stations are dirty, crowdy and there are poor amenities on board. An inter-city train such as, the Shatabdi Express was a hit because it ensured all this; cleanliness and better amenities and by and large they ran on time. But over a period of time, these Shatabdis seem to have deteriorated significantly and often run late, thereby compelling people to prefer flights over trains.

Although, the Indian Railways has seen somewhat of a turnaround in the past few years and there are quite a few achievements for which the current govt needs to be applauded, one, there are no unmanned crossings anymore. second, we have in last 4-5 years hardly any major accident. Lastly, the cleanliness at many railway stations has improved.

However, despite all the actions taken including the bio toilets the majority trains after travelling few odd kms from the starting station become dirty, often unruly and are still in a habit of running late.

CAG Report.

The CAG report tabled in Parliament highlighted two very important aspects of Indian trains which bring to the fore that we are still far far behind achieving efficiency;

One. Indian Railways despite investing ₹ 2.5 lakh crore on track infrastructure during 2008- 19 have failed to improve on the mobility outcomes.

Two. "Mission Raftaar" introduced in 2016-17 targeted an average speed of 50 kmph for mail/express and 75 kmph for freight trains by 2021-22. The average observed speed of Mail/Express and freight trains until 2019-20 was, however, still around 50.6 Kmph and 23.6 Kmph, respectively. This implies that perhaps the money that was spent on upgrading the infrastructure has not been utlised properly and so it has failed to achieve the desired impact.

Three. Out of 478 superfast (SF) trains, the scheduled speed of 123 SF trains (26 per cent) was less than the specified speed of 55 Kmph. Indian Railways has no guaranteed delivery time for goods consignment.

Four. Implementation of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project DFCCIL could not fully utilize the World Bank fund resulting in payment of avoidable commitment charges of ₹ 16 crore. No maintenance facility was created by the DFCCIL. Out of total 4,844 Route Km, only 2,346 Route Km (48 per cent) of feeder routes were upgraded till November 2020.

Examining Vande Bharat

In view of this report we need to critically examine the features of Vande Bharat ;

One. The average speed of the train, on various routes, as reported, has been approx. 81km per hour, implying it’s a waste of money because the tracks do not allow these trains to run at a speed for which they are designed. It’s like someone who is residing in Chandni chowk and has an office near Old railway station has bought a Ferrari to commute.

Two. In order to show that these trains are faster, the officials have tweaked with the stoppage times and number of stoppages. For instance, The Vande Bharat Express departs from Chandigarh at 3.30pm hrs and takes 2 hrs and 55 mins to reach New Delhi with Four stoppages whereas the Shatabadi Express covers the same distance in 3 hrs and 22 mins, a saving of mere 27 minutes.

We can safely assume that in few years’ time even the number of stoppages of these Vande bharat trains would increase like it happened with Shatabdi. For instance, Shatabdi running from Bhopal to New Delhi, in its initial days, barely had 3-4 stoppages whereas now it has almost nine.

In view of the above, therefore, the critics are not very wrong and they are justified in their criticism.

Conclusion.

Notwithstanding with what the critics say, I feel;

One. Construction of rail tracks is a long and tedious process and one can not wait for so long - to first develop the tracks and then bring in new technology trains, that can run faster on those newly laid tracks. This would take hell of a long time.

Two. So, in view of the above handicap, one can first roll out the high-speed trains and then gradually work on the track development.

Three. This would rather help the technicians to keep upgrading the technology and keep rolling out better coaches and engines so that when the high-speed tracks are made available, you will have better and faster trains readily available to make use of those tracks.

Four, someone travelling from Chandigarh to Delhi might skip the flight and prefer to board Vande Bharat but surely not for longer distances.

In order to draw an analogy, lets look at the automobile sector, What would we have preferred in 90s?

Continue driving fiat and ambassador till the improvement of roads and highways or switching over to faster and better technology Maruti Suzuki cars and wait for the roads to develop. The approach that we took in 90s, has helped us to upgrade the technology of the cars when better highways came up in due course of time.

Lastly, Lets accept that Vande Bharat is an upgraded version of Shatabdi Express which has been introduced, in all probability, with an aim, that Shatabdi dies its own natural death.

However, what will be interesting to see is ; The condition of these VANDE BHARATS , after a decade or so ? But the fact of the matter is Can we blame Madhav Rao Scindia and the then Govt for the plight of Shatabdis.

Note; You can also read this article on TOI Blogs. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/indiaasiseeit/vande-bharat-53085/

The recent Lok Sabha membership suspension of Mr Rahul Gandhi drew sharp reactions from various cross sections of the society but the desired impact will probably not materialize in the near foreseeable future. Mr. Modi’s opponents can hold protests for days alleging coercion, authoritarian rule, polarisation and majoritism but this is not likely to make a difference to the masses. That is because Mr. Modi is not only a captivating politician who has mesmerised the Indian masses but is a product of underlying socio-political and economic currents.

Since 2014, eight years back, when Mr. Modi came to power, nothing has adversely impacted his popularity, like - lynching of Muslims by cow protection gangs (his supporters), loss of jobs due to demonetisation, the misery caused to millions due to sudden national lockdown in 2020, the deaths of millions due to shortage of oxygen during the second wave of COVID-19 in April-May 2021, high unemployment rate especially amongst the youth, persistently high inflation, clamour for Hindu Rashtra, resulting demand for Khalistan, reported corruption in Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan and Smart City project, the failure of all high-profile initiatives RERA, Ayushman Bharat and Ujwala, the high handed measures against critics especially media houses, journalists, academicians and think tanks and corruption in the Adani business group. Rather each act of mis-governance and hasty decision-making has been strongly justified by his supporters, who have answers for all the questions. But the answers are increasingly making no sense and are leaving many rational Indians shaking their heads in disbelief.

Take for instance this recent conversation with my colleague, a Mr Modi supporter. Recently, around a hundred delegates from G20 member countries had participated in a three-day meet held at Indore. A week before the summit large life-size cut outs of Mr. Modi and the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh were placed all over Indore and all local radio channels advertised the importance of meeting almost every 10-15 minutes, in Hindi. It had left me wondering as to why local radio channels are advertising this meet.

When I discussed this issue with this colleague, he remarked, “it is the need of the hour, Modiji is doing all this to get FDI.”

So I asked, “don’t you think in that case these advertisements must be done in the country from where these dignitaries are coming.”

Prompt came his reply, “they are coming to Indore, that’s why the Government has to advertise in local channels.”

“Do they listen to these Hindi radio channels?” I asked him innocently.

“Modiji will make sure that they listen. Modiji is very smart. He is a Gujjrati, you know Gujjratis have great business sense.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

To understand Mr. Modi and his supporters one needs to examine the context and the underlying currents which contributed to his rise and power.

During the 1970s, the Indian society was simmering with discontentment due to the socio-economic and political realities – food shortages, pervasive corruption, limited economic opportunities and extreme poverty. The Hindi cinema directors used that discontentment and dormant rage to project Mr. Bachchan in anti-establishment and rebellious roles, dubbed as the "angry young man". It would not be wrong to state here that what Mr Bachchan represented in the 1970s in the Hindi cinema, Mr. Modi represented a similar dormant rage, anger, frustration, and rebellion existing in 2013-14 due to terrorism, scams, corruption, mis-governance, unemployment and policy paralysis. Mr. Modi’s supporters are not expecting him to follow righteous means to achieve the desired goals. Like, Amitabh Bachchan in those Bollywood movies of 1970s, Mr. Modi is also expected to take on the system head-on and deliver by hook or by crook.

This rage and frustration prevalent in the society was skilfully used by Mr. Modi through technology i.e., television and social media, to go national and project himself from a state chief minister to the prime minister of India who could take on the mighty and powerful. He was projected as the Angry Man from a humble background who fought inequality and lived in poverty. Therefore, technology played and is still playing the role of a force multiplier in making Mr. Modi the Amitabh Bachchan of Indian Political arena.

Therefore, Mr. Modi’s rise is a bottom-up phenomenon – he is not the one who has been parachuted from top, but he has worked his way up. Thus, Mr. Modi’s supporters are motivated by a complex mix of emotions. There is ambition and aspirations but there is also a degree of resentment, anger and frustration against the system. They have placed a lot at stake (emotionally) in support of this leader.

Mr. Modi takes on many identities. For hard core Hindus – he is the Hindu samrat who will get them Akhand Bharat (one India). For moderate Hindus – he is the reformer, hard task master and an able administrator.

In this context, it’s essential to see where this would take him as a leader and along with him where it takes us, the Indian society. Will he be seen by the future generations as the modern reformer, one who gave the country modern institutions, like Mr. Nehru gave namely, ISRO, IITs, IIMs, heavy engineering and steel manufacturing companies, atomic research institutions, metallurgy labs and a constitution to run and sustain the country. Or will Mr. Modi be remembered as an authoritarian who despite building roads, railways and ports drove the society towards obscurantism, orthodoxy, conservatism and destruction.

There is no certain way to predict the future but we can draw inferences by looking at some recent events and indicators:

        1.The anti-Muslims tirade carried out by the right-wing groups, who are staunch supporters of Mr. Modi, is likely to create intense discord and disharmony in the society. If 20 million Muslims are made to feel that this country is not theirs then this does not bode well for the country’s future. This disengagement of Muslims can cost the society dearly in times of crisis. Omar Abdullah’s statement underscores this point –“Present day India is not the country that Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) had acceded to, the decision "would have been something else" if people had known that the Muslim community's religious rights will not be protected in this country”.

2. The groups which were once fringe elements – Bajrang Dal, VHP, Sri Ram Sena, Hind Rakshak Sena etc. – are increasingly becoming part of the main stream and public institutions are caving in to their dictats. These groups are the Hindu Taliban. This will no doubt lead to hooliganism, hatred in the society and clamour for Hindu Rashtra which in turn may encourage separatism in the country. After all, Hinduism is not the only religion in this country and is not even practiced the same way across the country. The recent statement by the Akal Takht chief’s is relevant here“Every Sikh should try to keep licensed weapons because the time that is coming, and the circumstances which are going to prevail, demand it,” He further goes on to say, when asked about the action taken by the Govt against Sikh youth under NSA “There are lakhs who demand Hindu rashtra. Those who are calling for Hindu Rashtra should also be booked . They should also be booked under NSA."
3. The Make-in-India initiative has not rejuvenated the Indian manufacturing sector which for the last one decade has been stuck at 15% of GDP and rather slid down to 13% recently. Additionally, the disastrous currency ban in 2016, which wiped out 86% of cash in circulation, and a hasty roll-out of GST, has hit businesses hard, especially the smaller ones. It was because of these reasons, along with a very weak financial sector, that economic growth slowed down much before the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
4. The sluggish manufacturing sector and growing unemployment might result in India missing potential gains from the demographic dividend – which comes from increased economic activity due to a high share of working-age population. It were the young job seekers and impatient young voters (aged between 15 and 34) comprising almost 65% of our population, (which would grow to almost 485 million by 2030) which proved to be a game changer for Mr. Modi in the last two elections. However, if India’s manufacturing sector does not grow and produce quality jobs, the same youth can cause turmoil in the society, as it happened when the Agniveer scheme was launched. For India to exploit this demographic dividend, by creating more and quality jobs, its economy would need to grow at a rate more that 7-8%.

5. However, we are heading into rough waters as the new World Bank report notes and the World Bank’s President David Malpass summarized, “the global slowdown in the next two years can result into a lost decade in the making – not just for some countries or regions as it occurred in the past – but for the whole world”. Now when we look at India whose exports and manufacturing is stagnant, per capita income amongst the lowest and a large young population unemployed, our economic woes will create a large force of disgruntled elements.

6. The authoritarianism and majoritism is creating another peculiar situation where important policy bills concerning the welfare of people are being passed without any discussion as there is no opposition. This implies that few people from the ruling junta sit together and decide what is good for the people and announce the scheme. Instead of listening to the dissenting voices and engaging people in nation building, the central government is stifling their voices. It feels that wining elections are increasingly becoming more important than listening to dissenting voices and nation building. Ostensibly, at some point of time this will start hurting the masses and they will protest, like it happened with the farm laws.

Conclusion

The undercurrents of 2024 elections are likely to set the tone of the nation. The degree of polarisation, the violence, and the issues on which these elections will be fought will decide whether the society as a whole, marches forward facing the challenges or it stumbles, with each community at loggerheads with the other.

There is no doubt that Mr. Modi will win, even if his majority is dented a bit, but it is the tone, as I said which will matter. If Mr. Modi, does not re-invent himself like Amitabh Bachchan did after a series of box-office failures, there are chances that the society may further get into a vicious circle of slow growth, frustration, polarisation and violence.

The riots and arson, have already commenced, the institutions have started caving in. The warning bells have already started ringing. Its for the society and the politicians to listen to those, if they don’t, sadly everyone loses. The better brains have already started fleeing abroad.

However, no other political leader has been able to capture the underlying socio-political currents as successfully as Mr. Modi and therefore, there is no credible leader to take on the divisive forces. This has meant that Mr. Modi is yet to suffer a box-office failure and till the time that does not happen he will have no incentive to change.

The erstwhile Governor of Kashmir Mr Satya Pal Malik’s recent disclosure about Pulwama has not come to me as a surprise, not because there is some truth in it, but because, our politicians have been traditionally exploiting the soldiers for their own vested political interests. 

Stephen Cohen, a renowned strategic expert on South Asian Affairs, while discussing about the Indian military traditions wrote in his book - The Indian Army

“There are particularly two different sets of attitude towards military in India. Modern militarism and traditional militarism”. The modern militarism, he said, was the outcome of the realization that the Army is the symbol of state power and was an expression of national will which demanded equalitarian recruitment. This sentiment was more prominent in Bengal and Western India and thereafter grew in other regions. Whereas, the Traditional Militarism was confined to specific regions and castes. He further added that, “As a result of agitation both in England and India the strength of Indians in ICS increased to the 5% of the total within a span of 15-20 years whereas during the same period although the lower ranks of Indian Army were mainly Indians but there representation in the officer cadre was much below 5% and it was not till late 20th century that there was some pressure from urban India”.

This implies that Army was never a lucrative career for urbanite and educated Indian youth(except in some regions).

The Governements as a result have been using armed forces as a mere symbol of national power and also to hype up nationalism during or just prior to elections without showing any genuine concern for the soldier, who is otherwise treated with disdain by the society and by the politicians.  Ours is one country whose Govt is engaged in litigations with its own armed forces. Pan Singh Tomar turned into a dacoit because he was illtreated by the civic society and the recent incident of a soldier beaten to death by a politician are few such examples that convey as to how a soldier is treated in our society.

As a result our soldiers have often been thrown into action as cannon fodder, without anyone questioning the policy makers. 

Remember the Hindi movie “Baby” in which the secretary of the Raksha Mantri was slapped by Akshay Kumar when the Secretary spoke with indifference about the soldier’s casualties ;

“ unka kaam to marna hi hai” .

This is exactly what Hajendra Baweja in her book ; The Soldier’s Diary while blaming the entire set up for the Kargil war said ;

‘Maybe this diary will expose those responsible. But who will pay the price? My overwhelming fear is that the sacrifices of so many brave soldiers will have been in vain”.

None asked the Govt and the authorities concerned that ;

Why did we suffer so many casualties ; 527 killed and 1300 wounded ?

Did we fight the Kargil war in the manner it should have been fought ?

Could there have been a better way or Was the Govt in a hurry as the elections were to be held soon so they pushed the army into action ?

Could we have not got behind the enemy?

Could we have not enlarged the battle field like we did in 1965?.

Hoowever, Sam Manekshaw , offcourse as a retired soldier had asked very pertinent questions on the issue of Induction of Indian army in Srilanka, with little preparations . He wrote ;

“ Where was the hurry? Was our territorial integrity endangered” ?

Why go so far , Lets discuss about recent incidents . Did anyone BOTHER TO ASK ;

Why did Mr Modi compell the Corps Commander, a Lt Gen, to apologise publicly just prior to the Assembly elections in Kashmir, when the troops had fired on a Maruti van which had not stopped at the Barrier ?

On top of that , why did Mr Modi boast about that apology by a General in a public rally ; " Yeh Modi Raj mey mumkin hai", he had said?

Under whose order that crucial Check Barrier was removed?

Had that barrier been there, could the casualties been avoided?

Why did we lose 20 men at Galwan ?

Why did they go unarmed to examine whether the Chinese who had intruded into our territory have gone back or not?

Why did the Commanding Officer go to the site leading not even a platoon size force , what were his Company Commanders and Young Captains doing? Or

Was the Commanding Officer scared that if he sends a young Officer , the situation may heat up?

So why was he so concerned about the situation not flaring up despite the fact that Enemy had entered India’s territory?

Who was in that case issuing instructions to the Commanding Officer?

What kind of an Army are we creating ? An army which is at the beck and call of politicians and wags its tail in front of the enemy?

Sadly, once again no one is asking questions and in the guise of Nationalism the politicians are using soldiers as sacrificial lamb and are getting away lightly.

Politicians divide the country into warring vote banks and place one community against another. They campaign on slogans that appeal to community fears and suspicions rather than create any national consensus or harmony. They hold power based upon blame and hatred

The following should remind us once again what we have turned into and where are we heading to ;

Alberuni, a noted historian who came to India with Mahmud Ghazni who conducted numerous raids and looted temples in India with impunity and with little challenge, rightly described the temper of the then Indians in his book. Alberuni said ;

“ Indians are haughty, foolishly vain, self contained and stolid(stupid), and they believe that there is no country like theirs, no king like theirs and no science like theirs.” Aren’t we, the natives of this land still the same as our ancestors were in 11th century.

In 1192, just within hundred years of Alberuni’s description, finally because of our own stupidity, we lost our Political freedom and for next almost 800 years we suffered and were humiliated.

Thereafter, Even Shri C Rajgopalachari a renowned freedom fighter had mentioned in his prison diary in 1922 -

“ Elections and their corruption, injustice and the power and tyranny of wealth and inefficiency of administration will make hell of life as soon as freedom is given to us. Men will look regretfully back to the old regime ( British Rule) of comparative justice and efficient, peaceful more or less honest administration. The only thing gained from independence will be that as a race we will be saved from dishonor and subordination”.

Even Churchil on the eve India’s Independence had warned us ;

"Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters. . . . All leaders will be of low caliber & men of straw. . . They'll have sweet tongues & silly hearts. . . They will fight amongst themselves for power & the two countries will be lost in political squabbles. . . . A day would come when even air & water will be taxed”.

All these years we have been working incredibly hard to prove them right ; that we are divided, we are corrupt, we are dishonest to our own gallant soldiers, that we have no integrity, we can even stoop down low to exploit the dead soldiers for our own vested political interests.

I know Pathological Modi Bhakts will still find a reason to support him and not the soldiers.

Hundreds of people had joined education reformist Sonam Wangchuk on the final day of his five-day hunger strike held in Ladakh in Jan this year. Sonam Wangchuk is the same Engineer whose life inspired a character; Phunsukh Wangdu in Bollywood block bluster "3 Idiots".

He had alleged that he was asked to sign a bond and has been placed under house arrest and even gone to the extent of calling the current Govt as DICTATOR.

So, in view of the above, its important to understand, what are his demands and why has Govt shied away from responding to his demands.

One. He says “ The government needs to have a futuristic plan for safeguarding the environment of the Himalayas”. He further adds “ Safeguarding the Himalayas, including its glaciers, should be more important than making some "corporators happy" as it is having a direct bearing on the people”.

Two. He wants an extension of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to Ladakh because now that protection of article 370 is gone , it is necessary to protect the people and their land under the provision of article 244 from the corporate hawks.

Prima facie, it appears that post article 370, the bonhomie with the ruling Govt at the centre is fast disappearing and locals are now realising that they are now being thrown open to the corporate wolves who want nothing but only the Land where they can set up hotels, resorts, bring in more flights & more tourists, more shopping complexes and so on in the guise of Development.

This is exactly what has happened in eco sensitive Uttarakhand where in the name of development its environment is brought to a point of no return.

So, there is some truth in what Mr Sonam Wangchuk said ; The Union Territory's administration wants to silence him as he protests against destruction of the region's ecology and unsustainable development.

It would also be grossly wrong to look at his demands from the prism of religion and create a rift between Muslims of Kargil and Buddhists because the natural calamity does not discriminate.

We have seen this happening with all environmentalists and still not woken up, despite so many calamities that have taken place in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh due to unsustainable development. 

Very few might be knowing about Mr Sonam’s protest nor would they be any interested about the Ladakhis till the Land of Ladakh is with India. That’s the major problem, we always tend to think of Land and not the people who live there, may be the attitude is ; ZAMIN AAGAYI LOGON KA KYA HAI, THOK PEET KEY AA JEYENGEY.

A State that crushes the voice of its people and displays scant respect for their concerns does not prosper, yes China, the Dragon empire is surely an example that may inspire some but India has never been like the Dragon empire and so it should avoid imitating China while dealing with people.

It is therefore high time that Govt rethinks about this mad development in eco sensitive regions of India and learn a few lessons from its neighbour Bhutan as to how Tourism can be regulated.