From time to time, a man in the government says modern things. Then nothing happens, and he returns to say more modern things. They have an air of someone from the 80s. Yet, of all Indian politicians, he says the most urban things.
Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, almost never talks about grand but useless things; Instead, he talks about things like parking and roads. On Thursday, he said he was considering a bounty. 500 for any Indian who deceives the authorities by having a vehicle parked in the wrong place. In recent days, he has raised the fines for traffic violations manifold, reducing deaths on Indian roads by 50%, making all government vehicles electric, building “multi-level hybrid flyovers” and honking all vehicles. Consider converting to sounds. Indian Musical Instruments Recently, he set a daily target of constructing 60 km of highways.
Gadkari appears at press conferences where he provides details like the chief executive. Once when a journalist demanded a toll exemption for the press, Gadkari said that Indians should learn to pay for services. Also, he uses a hydrogen-powered car.
Conversely, every time Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated for modernity, he has been unmistakable—for example, he said that India should build “twin cities” and “smart cities”, and that the world One who thinks that climate change may simply be the inability of older people to endure the weather.
Gadkari today is the harbinger of simple happiness, even though urban Indians are not gullible enough to believe that everything he says will be true. A few years ago, he said that Indians plan for a year; Instead we should plan for 100 years. Who else in the government says such things? Most of the time, he’s only pondering, and not doing. Yet, we are not used to politicians who know what is good for the public.
Any news of future infrastructure is an unheard of source of little human happiness. Something about the bridges and roads of the future in our familiar space makes us feel that life is about to become more interesting than the ordinary present. If we ever compile a history of news stories on the future of commuting, we will realize that most of them never came true, but all the honest fantasies of urban planning prophets gave some hope to their generation. This is how Gadkari makes us happy.
His rise to national prominence is a bit strange. Why has this happened? He was never a mass leader. Not so humble like Arun Jaitley that he could never win an election. Yet, in a country that probably has only one national politician, Gadkari has no more than a few pockets of public appeal. Usually, people who are very useful to their organizations but are not superstars remain unknown and useful. But there is a mysterious and supernatural force that fuels him. What else can explain the fact that his words get major media coverage when he says something sensible and modern about the civil order that isn’t usually newsworthy as esoteric nonsense?
This makes me think that Gadkari’s view is a part of the ongoing cultural reform of Indian society, and that in the future, Hindu nationalism will not be just about Hinduism or nationalism, but also about civil order and quality of life. Will happen. I look forward to this transformation of nationalism into something more useful than pride – like shame.
India is a middle income country which behaves like a poor nation. There is no longer any economic reason why India has to be so difficult for its own people. But Gadkari is more a forerunner than a prophet. He is more successful with statements of intent than with execution. The reason why nothing ever changes is what Gadkari thought is the reason why all good intentions of India fail. Gadkari and Bharat keep asking Indians to do the right thing – drive in your street, park right, follow the rules. But that is not how advanced countries created civil system. Those governments were the first to do a great job of creating favorable conditions. They built good roads and trains and platforms, used intelligent design that made it difficult to violate the rules and provided people with all the facilities they needed to ensure that only malicious intent could lead them to break the law. . On the other hand, road design in India and even traffic signals can kill us.
If a government does its job well, citizens will follow its rules. Many of our bureaucrats do not believe so. They have poor eyesight towards Indians. They say that if you provide the best infrastructure, Indians will make the worst of it, or even steal it. This is a country where an entire iron bridge was stolen. The administrators have a false view; They despise people. I’m not going to say that he should have a good view of people because there is no proof that people are great. In fact, I think the problem with Indian administrators is not misogyny, but its misuse.
Contrary to what administrators say around the world, when a government creates a public utility of great quality, citizens obey all the rules. There is evidence in India too: Delhi Metro. The compliance of the rules on this and other such air-conditioned transit systems is several notches higher than what Indians are displaying on the roads. It’s like we’re a reasonably middle-income country riding the subway and a banana republic on the outside. The reason is not mutual respect. People don’t follow rules out of gratitude or respect for infrastructure creators. The fear is that if someone can run a good service, it will also do well in imposing heavy fines.
Civil order is born out of fear. Every other root is just a loose word for it.
Manu Joseph is a journalist, novelist and producer of the Netflix series ‘Decauld’.