Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu are taking the sting out of the powerful central Motor Vehicle Act and diluting it. Other states are likely to follow suit. Hefty penalties for traffic violations may look draconian but deterrent measures are necessary in India where road fatalities are the highest in the world.
Jagan’s Naidu move not only reeks of political intolerance but also lacks vision
House arrest of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and his son to prevent their protest rally — after the removal of his security cover and undoing the Amaravati city project — is deplorable. AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy’s governance style not only reeks of political intolerance and authoritarianism but also lacks vision.
Nirmala Sitharaman’s assessment of millennials owning cars is fallacious
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s explanation that auto sales have slumped also because millennials afraid of EMIs are using Ubers and Olas sounds like sheer sophistry. Millennials, like everyone else, need well-paying jobs, cheap loans, good roads and a growing economy to prosper. They will then automatically graduate to buying cars.
One reality in India is that rules bestow power upon the corrupt bureaucracy. These stiff fines will cause even those who have been honest till now to consider bribing the traffic cop. The expected size (or that favorite word of Indian journalists quantum) of the bribe too will rise in proportion to the size of the fine. We should make it easy for people to be honest.
There is a time when one can do no wrong. Each aria sounds like Lata Mangeshkar. And then the notes begin to sound a little jumbled. On the economy, it is somewhat further down that unmusical path. Any underlying superciliousness / sophistry is not well received. The solution lies in improving things on the ground, of course, but the messaging needs to be taut, anchored in the truth.
CM Jagan Naidu, who swept to power on such a tsunami of support, is proving to be immature, lacking the gravitas his high office enjoins upon him. He might wish to correct course before the promise of the mandate is belied. As it is, Andhra without Hyderabad is like biryani without chicken or goat meat.
A few years ago, the Roads Ministry had given an international commitment that India would reduce fatalities by 50% over five years. That is doable. If the road to an improved culture of safety passes through these exceptionally stiff fines – bringing to mind the early years of Singapore’s transformation – that is a price worth paying. Impeding this initiative is undesirable populism.