01-16-2008, 08:08 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Highway scar </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
For want of a VIP...
Reports that the opening of a crucial flyover that will near-complete the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and ensure snarl-free journeys for an estimated 160,000 vehicles every day has been held up for want of a VIP are as ludicrous as they are shameful. <b>It is believed that the illness of the UPA chairperson and the busy schedule of the Prime Minister have come in the way of their presence. Lesser VIPs and Ministers will not do.</b> Now, after a group of intrepid and harassed commuters cut a ribbon and 'liberated' the flyover, in a symbolic gesture, Ministers and public officials may not want to come anywhere near the flyover in any case. It would be unfair to put the blame on just this Government of a few chosen functionaries. The truth is India's VIP culture is so deep-rooted that even an ordinary flyover connecting a city road to an inter-State highway requires the presence of a bigwig usually driven around in a Government car. India must be the only country in the world where tennis and football matches are regularly 'inaugurated' by Ministers and even Prime Ministers. <b>Â <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> In one infamous case, the politician in question threw the ball in the air and proceeded to, with a double-fisted grip on the racket, 'smash it for six' -- unable or unwilling to distinguish tennis from cricket.</b> From primary schools to housing projects, from new roads to re-built bridges, a VIP at the inauguration -- and, of course, the foundation stone ceremony as well -- is considered the norm. It is a particularly extreme, and comic, manifestation of Indian statism, a legacy that has not really gone away, despite a decade-and-a-half of fitful liberalisation.
It is not difficult to consider the impact of the unopened flyover. At peak hour, a journey from downtown Delhi to Gurgaon can take close to two hours. The flyover will cut time and allow crucial access to an expressway that is a 16-lane wonder and, for the moment, should take in all the traffic and more. It is possible senior politicians don't realise this. In Delhi, few of them travel outside the Lutyens' zone. For the lucky elite, a rigorous and sometimes overdone security protocol ensures quick, obstacle-free travel through the central arteries of the city. This would be largely true for State capitals, too. Till well after World War II, Clement Atlee was taking public transport to work, the last British Prime Minister to do so. When he relinquished office in the summer of 2007, Mr Tony Blair took the Tube as he left 10 Downing Street for the last time. Such instances would be unheard of in India. Living in a state-sponsored, taxpayer-subsidised bubble, Ministers and former Ministers have no idea about how people go about their business. Specifically, the torture that an urban commute makes for is completely alien to them. It has come in the way of overdue investment in mass transit networks and in the nonchalance with which the authorities have approached the Gurgaon flyover. They don't care, because they simply don't know better. It would be best if the flyover is opened at once, without fuss or drama. At least the ordinary car/truck owners will pay the highway toll. <b>The VIPs will probably ask for an exemption anyway </b>
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DO we know name of that fool?
The Pioneer Edit Desk
For want of a VIP...
Reports that the opening of a crucial flyover that will near-complete the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and ensure snarl-free journeys for an estimated 160,000 vehicles every day has been held up for want of a VIP are as ludicrous as they are shameful. <b>It is believed that the illness of the UPA chairperson and the busy schedule of the Prime Minister have come in the way of their presence. Lesser VIPs and Ministers will not do.</b> Now, after a group of intrepid and harassed commuters cut a ribbon and 'liberated' the flyover, in a symbolic gesture, Ministers and public officials may not want to come anywhere near the flyover in any case. It would be unfair to put the blame on just this Government of a few chosen functionaries. The truth is India's VIP culture is so deep-rooted that even an ordinary flyover connecting a city road to an inter-State highway requires the presence of a bigwig usually driven around in a Government car. India must be the only country in the world where tennis and football matches are regularly 'inaugurated' by Ministers and even Prime Ministers. <b>Â <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> In one infamous case, the politician in question threw the ball in the air and proceeded to, with a double-fisted grip on the racket, 'smash it for six' -- unable or unwilling to distinguish tennis from cricket.</b> From primary schools to housing projects, from new roads to re-built bridges, a VIP at the inauguration -- and, of course, the foundation stone ceremony as well -- is considered the norm. It is a particularly extreme, and comic, manifestation of Indian statism, a legacy that has not really gone away, despite a decade-and-a-half of fitful liberalisation.It is not difficult to consider the impact of the unopened flyover. At peak hour, a journey from downtown Delhi to Gurgaon can take close to two hours. The flyover will cut time and allow crucial access to an expressway that is a 16-lane wonder and, for the moment, should take in all the traffic and more. It is possible senior politicians don't realise this. In Delhi, few of them travel outside the Lutyens' zone. For the lucky elite, a rigorous and sometimes overdone security protocol ensures quick, obstacle-free travel through the central arteries of the city. This would be largely true for State capitals, too. Till well after World War II, Clement Atlee was taking public transport to work, the last British Prime Minister to do so. When he relinquished office in the summer of 2007, Mr Tony Blair took the Tube as he left 10 Downing Street for the last time. Such instances would be unheard of in India. Living in a state-sponsored, taxpayer-subsidised bubble, Ministers and former Ministers have no idea about how people go about their business. Specifically, the torture that an urban commute makes for is completely alien to them. It has come in the way of overdue investment in mass transit networks and in the nonchalance with which the authorities have approached the Gurgaon flyover. They don't care, because they simply don't know better. It would be best if the flyover is opened at once, without fuss or drama. At least the ordinary car/truck owners will pay the highway toll. <b>The VIPs will probably ask for an exemption anyway </b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
DO we know name of that fool?