The Sensitized Trucker

And the Judiciary thought its verdict was pragmatic enough..

And the Judiciary thought its verdict was pragmatic enough..

A seething minority, a buoyant majority and the damage that has been inflicted.

 Welcome to the class of Political Insanity, to the class of Theological Disparity and to the class of the Judiciary in an imbroglio.

The last vestiges of the much embattled idiosyncrasy of the existence of the Ram Janmabhoomi and the Babri Masjid has been resolved (sic) as per the verdict of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court or so.

Applause from the Hindutva ideology tottering Bharatiya Janta Party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtra Swyamsevak Sangh while gloom descending on the faces of the leaders of the Sunni Waqf Board and the common minority in and around the nation.

Pragmatism evaded the verdict on one of the most unflinching issues ever in the dateline of India as a nation. Something which completely transformed the political ideologies and the game of politics, verdict on it came just as a blinding shocker for the minority community.

Righteously what had the Muslims envisaged never ever came to the forefront but yes the litigant fighting over a ridiculous belief well over 5000 years had the audacity to come out and flash unperturbedly a victory sign.  

Who does really care about the facts and evidences put across by the Sunni Waqf Board when we all so unabatedly know about the character of these political stooges; I hope you understood whom am I referring to?

Perhaps it was the duty of the Judiciary to put the biased predicaments at peace, or perhaps in a ridiculement of its own sense of belief the judiciary came out with a verdict to masquerade the nexus between itself and the executive.

Whatever might have been the circumstances, the Muslim community would have had haplessness writ on their faces. Even if the verdict would have been in their favour, the majority would have been left seething. Why?

Echoing the much dramatized sentiments (sic) of the Hindutva leaders, “how can we have a mosque been built at the place which is surrounded by Ram Lala and his kith and kin?”  “The Muslim community is inflicting nails into its own coffin... we would strive ahead with all vigour to prevent a mosque to ever come up at the revered birth place of Ram Lala.”

In the scenario of the verdict tilting in the favour of the majority, which in some sense has happened the Muslims would have been poked fun at unmistakably. All previous statements of the BJP leaders have made the grass rougher and rougher.

The Muslim community has been made to bleed a silent death ever since the 22^nd of December 1949 when the infamous Lord Ram idol was found within the vicinity of the Babri Masjid. However, what really has put me in an amusing dilemma is the fact that the Babri Masjid stood tall from 1527 till December 6^th 1992.

India kept evolving as a nation more or less be it under the Mughals or the British Empire, had literary Hindu scholars like Swami Dayanand Saraswati whose sole aim was to synchronise the chords of the nation again onto the path of Vedic rituals but still Ayodhya existed, still the Ram Lala shared a perfect bonhomie with Babri Masjid. Nobody thought of committing a crime so heinous of destroying a place of worship!

But, sadly as is not the case and on one fine morning of December 1992 the Babri Masjid came crashing down.  What would you’ve expected from the Muslim brethren? Destroy any god damn temple and one would get the answer best suited for this question.

 Even after having survived this blot on their shirt to have not been able to save this revered mosque the Muslim never reverberated with the stinking apathy of the Hindu. Right Wingers might debate till the very end that the minority can never even think of something a la Babri Masjid but, the fact of the matter is that this community was never in the reins of an ailing intelligentsia or that is how i feel.

They could have reacted with the same brick batting, with the same mudslinging at each other and sticking to the ages old idiom of ‘an eye for an eye’.  There ain’t any less number of temples in this nation and amusingly with the number of them present in Ayodhya, if the common Muslim from the adjoining areas considering Ayodhya’s proximity to Muslim dominated districts of Lucknow, Barabanki or the notoriously prominent Azamgarh would have gone on the rampage then, a Mini Palestine would have been created in the heart of the nation.  Also, then Ram would have been confined to the museums or the excavations in Chitrakoot or further down under.

If Lucknow burned in 1992 and Bombay in 1993, it primarily was the outcome of a community venting its fury on repeatedly being termed as an outcast or perhaps an answer to the ostracism of its beliefs. I applaud the Muslims for what they did in 1992 and more so for Godhra 2002, an eye opener for the hooligans of Ayodhya, be it the beleaguered rustic impertinent politicians or the mindless karsewaks who acted as per the whims and fancies of their masters. Godhra is an eyesore for the right wingers, why? The Muslims just did what they felt pragmatic enough.

A three way division of the 66.5 acres of land and the outright quashing of the title owner petition of the Sunni Waqf Board by the justices of the bench of the Allahabad High Court quite sums up the intention of the judiciary. What they claim as a fair and balanced judgement is merely nothing than keeping all litigants at tenterhooks to maintain a so what calm. I personally would give my approval to the judgement which shall rule that the Babri Masjid land should be rightfully returned back to the Muslims. A belief, five thousand years old cannot decide the location of the Sanctum Sanctorum or the Garbha Griha: birth place of Ram.

Concluding on a note which not many would agree to, i’d like the Sunni Waqf Board to step up the pressure to rightfully acquire the land that has been taken away from them. As commoners they’d still have to suffice with the embattled and lame judiciary and their silence is sure to have been mistaken for some toothless wisdom. Sadly it is not the case as the fury seething within.

                            
Devang Chaturvedi

Incredibly Creative!

Gautum Dutta is like any other middle class Indian. Government employed, breadwinner for the family but there is something about him that would make you connect instantly. Be it his infectious child like smile, his love for speaking, his portly figure or his demeanor, which speaks volumes of the person he is.

Clad in his uniform of a blue shirt and black trousers, Gautam can be recognized from a distance even as far as a hundred meters, always involved in some activity. Because when it comes to the National Raliway Museum, situated in Chanakyapuri in New Delhi, Gautam has both his hands full.

Affectionately addressed as ‘Gautam Da’, he is recognized by one and all, greeted and smiled at. For, it’s him, who has been a fulcrum of sorts for the Railway Museum for a sweet twenty five years now.

He joined the Railway Museum in 1986 and has reasons behind why he finally decided to move out of Calcutta.

“The political pressures in a state like West Bengal are immense even on normal people and they are hounding most of the times. There is not one household in West Bengal that does not have an artist. The irony however is that the realization for many is not there. West Bengal is so much marred in its own sets of problems, that the artist within never happens to recognize one’s potential. Thankfully I’m not one of them.”

However, something else is of more interest than him being the centre weight of the

museum. The marvelous models of the engines on display, be it in the indoor gallery or the Souvenir Shoppe, most of them have been handcrafted and designed by him.

Gautam’s initiation is self attributed. Hailing from Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, Gautam made a replica of a water treatment plan right outside his house as early as a student of the eighth standard. With no background in engineering and architecture, this was no mean feat.

“My model was embraced by the Municipal Corporation of Calcutta who paid me a princely sum of Rupees two thousand. For a standard eighth student, getting this much money, the joy was inexplicable,” says Gautam

Later his water treatment plan was selected for the Ganga Action Plan when he was a student in Intermediate.

“The simplicity of the model caught the attention of the eye of the officials for the Ganga Action Plan in Calcutta. When my father came to know about this development his joy knew no bounds. We were a family in cash crunch but my father made it sure that our schooling was best as per his resources and I, proved it beyond doubt. Till this date I have never under gone any training for the models that I make and yet they are so accurately made each time. I’m left baffled at times too.”

He has made innumerable replicas of train engines, but the one closest to his heart is that of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway locomotive (GIP1), which was the first locomotive to ever run in India in 1853 from Bombay to Thane.

“When I made this particular locomotive, I had a feeling as if I had been pushed behind in timeline. I considered myself extremely fortunate in getting the opportunity to handcraft not just any other model, but the first and one of the finest to have run on Indian soil.”

His technique is intensive and time consuming. “I usually take about ten days to complete one model. Once done, and if the demand is high, I can complete near about twenty models in a month’s time. You need to get the process right in the first attempt and if it falters then you falter on every model you make.”

The entire process depends upon how well the wooden cast wheels adjust on the rails. Gautam usually takes the help of technical people while placing the wheels, as one slight variation in size can ruin the entire replica. Each wheel with all its spokes needs to be correct in every dimension, he clarifies.

One needs to have oodles of confidence and patience as not everything can be done by you explains Gautam. “The delays can be inordinate. No one has a clue as to what time would be taken by the fabricator to weld the aluminum sheets or the time taken by the glass caster. I have to pressurize them each time but in the end they do the job for me.”

He has made a replica of Fairy Queen, which is the world’s oldest running steam locomotive having been commissioned by the Eastern Indian Railway (EIR) in 1855 but now being run by the Northern Railway, operating between Delhi and Alwar via the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan.

Other notable replicas to his credit are those of the Patiala State Monorail Trainways (PMST), built for Maharaja of Patiala State, Sir Bhupinder Singh in 1907 and a WAG Diesel locomotive, where W stands for Broad Gauge, A for AC Traction and G for goods duty.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway System (DHRS) and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), UNESCO declared sights and India’s two of the three narrow gauge running toy trains have also been made into replicas by Gautam.

India is a land of myriad charms and there is no dearth of people like Gautam Dutta here, who listen to what their heart says and do what they feel, gives them the maximum pleasure. He indeed is befitting as a role model for all of those who still believe that doing what their heart says is a pessimistic approach to life. 

The endless wait for a Common Regional Transport Authority for Delhi NCR

The endless wait for a Common Regional Transport Authority for Delhi NCR

Devang Chaturvedi

Shyamu Rathore is approximately 24 years of age and has been driving an auto rickshaw in Ghaziabad, UP for the past two years. The hired auto rickshaw that he drives costs him Rs. 350 per day but Shyamu’s expenditure is just not limited to hiring the auto. From CNG expenditure to bribing the Delhi and UP police at the Ghaziabad-Loni-Anand Vihar border, his is a perfect example of how obligatory they have to be just to avoid the excess tax levied inside Delhi.

An auto rickshaw that roughly costs Rs 1, 60,000 within UP is priced at a staggering

Rs 5, 34,000 in Delhi. An increased price means an increased tax and hence the reluctance of crossing the border inside the precincts of the national capital.

Public Transportation mess in National capital region of Delhi is perhaps as old as the National capital region itself. Inconvenienced commuters, harassed pliers and the state governments in a deadlock, such are the state of affairs of the public transportation in Delhi NCR to not talk about the counter magnates. It’s been decades that the effects of this clutter are understood by the governments or it may turn out to be yet another sore eye, aggravation of the masses supreme on it.

The circumstances are so dismal, that the average commuter, one who doesn’t use or perhaps is not able to use the Delhi Metro or the State Transport Corporation buses but rather uses the auto rickshaw or the cab is left stranded at the border in a state of utter disarray.

The commuter has two options broadly put across. One, he may disembark from the auto rickshaw at the border and board an auto to further prolong his ride to the destination he intends to. Two, he may agree to shell out any exorbitant amount the auto rickshaw driver has the audacity to ask for.

The Auto rickshaw driver cannot be put at fault if he intends to charge you more than what should be the tangible cost. For each time he ferries across the border he has to shell out the taxes levied on interstate movement. Not to forget, the excess bribe that he pays the cop at duty, which ever state he might be from.

“Delhi transport authorities do not permit tax wavers, however UP transport authorities cannot make it binding for the auto rickshaws coming from the other side of the border. The Govt. of Uttar Pradesh is open to the proposal of one transport jurisdiction for the area of Delhi NCR, but the going may be not as uncomplicated as it seems on paper”, claims Jaishankar Tiwari, Assistant Regional Transport Officer (Noida).

He further outlines on why it may be difficult to set one taxation rate in the region, “Taxation comes under the state list and the revenue generated is directly transferred from the region into the state treasury. Different rates of taxation are applicable in different states. Since, the revenue generated is immense neither of the state’s may be willing to part with this source of income”

Further he claims, “The standards and rates for auto rickshaws were fixed in 2005 and there hasn’t been a revision since. Rates and standards are set by the state government keeping in mind the paying capacity of masses all across the length and breadth of the state. What a person may be able to pay in Delhi NCR, a person using an auto rickshaw in a district as remote as Maharajganj in UP may not be able to. Rates have to be all inclusive. There needs to be a parity maintained in the state.”

Lastly he asserts, “The Government of Uttar Pradesh wishes to express solidarity with the aggravations of the commuters and the auto rickshaw drivers and intends to put across that commuter satisfaction as with a solution for the crisis is what their definitive purpose is; even if that may come at the expense of parting with the taxation revenue somewhat.”

However, the Gurgaon Regional Transport Officer’s office gives an entirely different yet somewhat amusing perspective. On being asked why auto rickshaw’s plying in Gurgaon and Faridabad, two bordering districts of Haryana, do not wish to cross over inside the Delhi border, the reply was, “They cannot. They can only go at the maximum of 5 kms and not beyond.”

Further, on being asked a possible solution for this problem the reply was, “Change the auto rickshaw at the border and continue with a Delhi registered auto rickshaw.”

The National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) a statutory body under the Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India however has proposed in its Transportation Plan 2021, unrestricted movement of auto rickshaws, cabs and buses across the border of Delhi and adjoining districts of Noida and Ghaziabad under UP and Gurgaon and Faridabad under Haryana.

It proposes to develop Mass Rapid Transit Systems (MRTS) and Regional Rapid Transit Systems (RRTS) so as to ensure high velocity movement of public and commercial transportation within the boundaries of the concerned states.

It also proposes the establishment of a co-ordinating agency, constituted by representatives from each different state who would co-ordinate and take an overall integrated view of the transportation facilities and hassles.  An authority for the region could thus be constituted either through fresh legislation under Clause (i) of Article 252 of the Indian Constitution with the consent of states involved or through resolution of the board itself, which would be of a non statutory nature.

An official on condition of anonymity from NCRPB on being asked about the problem of interstate plying of Auto rickshaws said, “Tax avoidance at the moment is the only available outcome of this crisis for the auto rickshaw drivers.”

He however recommended that, “Tax payment is the kind of recurring expenditure that proposes an investment of a sum for a year. You pay the entire tax once and then your commuting is unrestricted. Radio Cabs and Chartered Buses do so but they are not required to pay tax to and fro.

In the case of auto rickshaws however, the payment is to and fro. NCRPB is ready with the implementation of one way tax payment for the auto rickshaws too but a Supreme Court order has restrained the proceedings.”

The idea for one jurisdiction of this entire area has already been mooted and deliberated upon. The implementation however remains an unfinished task. With none of the states willing to give up the lucrative revenue generation the execution it seems would remain to be a thorn in the eye. The commuters can only hope that sense prevails and a common regional transport authority eliminates these overbearing hassles.