Monday, March 03, 2008

Chiddu ko gussa kyon aata hai?

Is it just me, or are all of you who have read Chiddu's post-Budget interviews in the papers or watched him on TV feeling that Chid's has been in a bad mood of late. Not enough leggy failed models in his life maybe? But, his outburst at Raghav Behl beggars belief. I'm not a big fan of CNBC-TV18, but all that raghav did was ask a lot about the 'waiver' and how the government plans to pay for it. A few too many times, but since Chiddu has no clue about an answer, he could not give a straight answer and got pissed off. After he took his microphone off, we hear that the camera's kept rolling and interestingly, the Finance Minister suuposedly threatened the channel which created the 'Cult of Chiddu' with these words, "You see what I do to you." Even more surprisingly he did not blow up at Raghav but a poor cameraman doing his job.
The only reason I can figure out from Chid's is that he was pressurised into this budget by Madam and her coterie of ministers. Read this ToI story for an idea, of course the Prime Minister, who I can comfortably say has been India's most ineffectual Prime Minister ever, couldn't save him. You saw the adverts the next day!
Anyway, this is an election budget, the budget will get passed, and by the Monsoon session around August the Nuclear Deal will also go through. The Commies will withdraw support and elections will be called for September or October. Or so the thinking goes. I mean a winter election is so much better than a April-May election. Of course, it would be interesting to see if they still pull off an election if the monsoons are weak.
To answer a comment calling me a 'townie', no buddy, I have actually travelled more in the hinterland than most journalists, definately more than most journalists working under the cover of 'business journalism'. Hero Honda and Airtel between them have done more for the 'farmers' than decades of Congress governance. Why is there no public transport in backward parts of the country, because politicians and bureaucrats have siphoned off crores from State Transport Corporations and refused in some cases to allow private operators to run. Kerala is a good example (though it is the scariest state in the country to drive in, I once did a run through Kerala all the way to Aleppy and back in a Scorpio) where private operators operate a lot of buses at high-frequency and thus people use it. It might be a bad example since Kerala is also possibly one of the easiest states to organise transportation in. But when I was in Vidarbha a few years ago, our driver told me that farmers often blew up their funds on motorcycles and TV sets. Unbridled consumerism funded on debt isn't just a problem in urban areas. My Hindi is pathetic, not that it helped in Vidarbha anyway, but I ain't no townie!
There has been a failure of governance for far too long in this country, not just in the farms but also in the cities. And believe me, I also think that the BJP is as bad as the Congress. There is absolute failure of governance in Madhya Pradesh for example. And in cities, I think it should be mandatory for all city councillors, mayors and in Delhi's case the hare-brained Shiela Dikshit to master SimCity4, in fact, they should learn the Transportation Expansion pack of the game. I mean what next? A congestion charge in Delhi, a la London?
Did anyone see Papermint's fantastic hatchet-job/self-congratulatory pages today? Surpriosed at the Red-Dots that ET got?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Public Transport in cities like Delhi is pathetic and I don't see much of a chance of improvement and Megha Suris of the world keep on running a campaign against Bus Corridor in the Times of India. How can you think of providing the city with a viable public transport without giving the Buses a dedicated corridor? But obviously there is no way, Megha would know this or for that matter her Metro Editor or even senoir editors.

K said...

To the last commenter, while I agree public transport is pathetic in Delhi, the bus corridor is extremely badly implemented idea which is being worked on the wrong part of town. This bus corridor is as bad as the M4 bus corridor in London which is a collosal failure. Yes, more investment is needed in public transport, and the metro has transformed parts of Delhi, but constructing a bus corridor through South Delhi managed to successfully screw up one arterial road. It might have been a smart idea if the other roads were free, but they aren't. I understand multi-modal transport, but bad implementation is what the paper is attacking, and bad implementation of a good idea can dramatically change public opinion and the ToI is expressing that. I drive down that stretch everyday and I think the bus corridor is a pathetic idea.

Anonymous said...

If you want to see a bus corridor failed, then please visit Pune - and see how they shut off the Bus Corridor for "VIP movements".

Now you know why they have one in South Delhi, too.

Anonymous said...

is it a pathetic idea because you drive through that area and it inconveniences you while it is under construction as most under-construction projects influence someone or the other?

Anonymous said...

I disagree that the administration is a complete failure. I live in a large city just 40 odd km from the MP border. Naturally, I travel there atleast twice a month. 5 years ago, a blind man could tell if his vehicle was travelling in Maharashtra or MP. The highway lacked anything close to a surface. You ought to take a look at the roads in MP now. They may not be six laned. But they are beginning to surpass Maharashtra now. The state now has surplus electricity and zero load shedding. Compare that with my city, facing 5 hours of loadshedding daily just because the fuckheads in MSEDCL and the moron Dilip Walse Patil want Mumbai and Pune to run their air conditioners all day. The loadshedding is upto 10 hours a day in surrounding rural areas.

MPSRTC now has buses in better condition than MSRTC does. And this despite MSRTC being far better funded of the two. All change took only 4 years. It is sad that the CM has not been able to manage state politics well enough, with the state BJP split into two camps. But despite this, I'd pick him over the jerkoffs running Maharashtra any day. Folks in here envy MP these days. A situation no one ever dreamed of earlier. Failure of governance? I don't think so.

Shriniwas