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Let Rahul Gandhi , Rather Than Moily, Take To Public Transport

By Vidyadhar Date

29 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Petroleum minister Veerappa Moily has done well to declare that from October 9 he will travel by public transport every Wednesday as a step towards conserving fuel. He has also asked bureaucrats of his ministry and public sector oil undertakings to do so.

But the initiative in this regard should have ideally come from Rahul Gandhi because the issue is mainly political and he should realize that the government, led by his party, has an extremely poor record on this score. Its policies have continuously promoted the automobile lobby, downgraded public transport and humiliated pedestrians. Since, he is now occupying such high moral ground in relation to the government, he must display a greater understanding of issues and ensure implementation. What is happening is that when it comes to public transport and common people’s mobility, his government has put them in reverse gear.

He should be aware that in several European countries politicians regularly bicycle their way to office or Parliament or take public transport. Leaders like him had a greater responsibility to promote cycling and pubic transport in India. But they have not only miserably failed to do so, their policies are making transport more and more difficult for common people. If he cannot cycle himself or take public transport citing security reasons, he could certainly ask party leaders and workers to take the initiative. And he could at least start the change at the Centre and in Congress-led states through implementation of pro-people policies.

Is he aware that one of the greatest films of all time, Bicycle Thief , was made in Italy, the country of the origin of his mother ? And Vittoria De Sica’s classic film of 1948 shows how the bicycle is important for the working life of a poor man and what happens when he loses it.

The initiative for boosting of public transport must come from the political class. The basic bureaucratic work has already been done with the formulation of the national urban transport policy. But it is being subverted by the political class itself. The Prime Minister recently talked of building airports even in small towns to boost connectivity. But connectivity for whom ? Only for those who can afford to fly ? Don’t the poor need connectivity ? They cannot even go conveniently from their home to place of work or from one village to another. And the administration of the Congress party’s ally, the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal , banned last month the use of the bicycle on 174 roads in Kolkata. This is brazen, even fascist. And as for air connectivity for small towns, Mr Singh should be aware that this is old hat. There is now increasing realization in Europe that small towns and big are best connected by fast trains, not by aeroplanes. More fuel efficient. Let us come to basics. But our political class has been blindly and cravenly following the American model which is increasingly being rejected by experts from all over including from within America itself.

Consumption of fuel for motor cars is in good measure responsible India’s precarious financial position and the weakening of the rupee .We have to import fuel and pay in dollars. So, the basic step should be to curb the use of motor cars. Yet, the government, the politicians, the bureaucracy seem to continue pandering to the automobile lobby.

What a horrible state of affairs. Despite the crisis, India’s top bank, the State Bank of India, gave front page advertisements in the Mumbai editions of the Times of India and the Indian Express on September 14. These offer loans for buying cars with a picture of a man driving a red car with three smiling little kids. Walk in and drive out, says the advertisement. So, such is the priority for the country’s oldest and biggest bank. And Union Bank is campaigning on television channels for loans for cars. And obviously the promotion of the car goes on speedily as arrogant motorists continue to mow down poor people.

It is not that the government is not aware of the crisis. But little is being done. The Prime Minister has given instructions that fuel imports be reduced but these seem to be a routine exercise. Instead of reducing fuel consumption through promoting public transport and walking, the government is catering to the car lobby. The lobby is historically associated with the political right wing and with fascism too. There is a justifiable campaign against Narendra Modi’s fascist methods but there is little recognition of the anti-democratic pattern of transport in states ruled by the Congress and its allies. To the credit of Modi his administration is running a fairly successful Bus Rapid Transit bus service in Ahmedabad while Congress-led governments are refusing even to consider proposals for such schemes in various states.
The politics of oil has deep connotations of CIA involvement, overthrow of democratic governance, attack on the public sector and democracy.

The sixtieth anniversary of one of the major crimes of the U.S. went unnoticed last August. This was the month the CIA engineered a coup against the elected government in Iran which had the guts to nationalize Iran’s oil. This adversely affected the interests of the U.K. and the U.S. This coup is well documented and the Americans have now officially admitted their role in the anti-democratic exercise.

India has ancient cultural ties with Iran and it should be one of our most prominent business partners. We need to import more oil from there rather than other countries because Iran accepts rupees. And our oil minister Moily said so but no one cares to remember the vicious role played by the Americans in changing the world oil scene, through their actions in Iran , Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

India's crude oil imports from Iran are shrinking gradually. The tacit reason is US pressure. , the Economic Times reported recently.

And does Rahul Gandhi know that Nobel laureate of Indian origin, Venkataraman Ramrkrishnan, uses the bicycle for daily travel in Cambridge and for years not owned a motor car ? The laureate said recently that the neglect of public transport in India could be related to the seceding of the elite from the masses. He referred to a recent New York Times headline `India in Reverse.’.

That heading was about the Indian economy but our politicians have certainly put into reverse ordinary Indians who want to walk, cycle or take public transport.

And now we have superstar Amitabh Bachchan working with the Mumbai traffic police to improve road traffic. He would be rendering much better service if he did not glorify the motor car culture so ostentatiously with his and his son’s large collection of outrageously expensive luxury cars.

Mr Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of the book Traffic in the Era of Climate Change. Walking, Cycling, Public Transport need Priority.

 



 

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