From KCR’s offer to join NDA to Tribal University, a promise made by UPA: Two Telangana visits, explosive revelations by PM Modi will change the political game

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference: 

 Even by Prime Minister Modi’s hectic travel standards, it is unlikely that he will visit the same state in a span of 3 days. So, when his itinerary was announced for his visits to Telangana on October 1st and 3rd, it certainly created excitement amongst the cadre and inquisitiveness among the media. And true to the expectations, Prime Minister Modi made some explosive revelations and announced some critical projects that are bound to change the nature of discourse in Telangana politics. 

On October 3rd, Prime Minister Modi revealed that Chief Minister KCR had approached him, after BRS’s loss in GHMC elections in the year 2020, with an offer to join the NDA in exchange for support in the GHMC council. He has also asked the media to check out the dates to validate his claim (the dates do check out. The results were declared on December 5th, and KCR met Modi on Dec. 12th). This offer was rejected by the Prime Minister and the BJP chose to sit in the opposition. 

Prime Minister Modi has also told us that KCR informed him that he plans to make KTR the CM and wanted Modi’s blessings for the same. The timing of this revelation also checks out because there were multiple leaks to the media in January 2021 that the coronation of KTR is right around the corner. The idea had to be dropped by KCR owing to severe resistance from within the party and his extended family too. 

The Prime Minister’s revelations have to be seen in the context of the growing narrative in the state that the BRS and BJP are friends and not foes! The mind really boggles at how the Congress party was very successful in spreading this narrative. The chief reason being cited was that despite multiple interrogations by the ED, KCR’s daughter Kavitha has not been arrested yet in the now famous Delhi Liquor Scam. The ED chargesheet does talk about a “South Group” of which Kavitha is a part, that arranged for 100 crores in bribes in exchange for licenses. The BJP cadre was finding it very difficult to counter this argument. And around the same time, the popular and vociferous BJP President Bandi Sanjay Kumar was replaced – thus adding more fuel to the narrative that this was done at the behest of a BRS-BJP understanding! 

The Prime Minister’s revelations have certainly come as a boost for the party cadre, but his announcements on October 1st in Telangana were no less significant and were equally narrative-setting in nature. Until the year 2021, Telangana was the highest turmeric-producing state in India. The people of Nizamabad district had a demand for nearly 15 years that a Turmeric board be set up in Nizamabad so that the turmeric farmers here get better opportunities and rates to sell Turmeric. There is this farmer who took a vow in the year 2011 that he will walk barefoot till the Turmeric Board is set up in Nizamabad. KCR’s daughter, Kavitha fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Nizamabad promising them that she will bring the Turmeric board. She failed to do so (among her many failures) and she eventually lost the 2019 election to BJP’s Dharmapuri Arvind.

D. Arvind signed a bond paper to the people of Nizamabad that he would resign if he failed to bring the Turmeric Board and also a good MSP for Turmeric. Though the central government announced the setting up of a Spices Board regional office in Nizamabad, it didn’t cut any ice with the voters. As has been the trend with the Modi government, where long pending issues are resolved quickly, Prime Minister Modi has announced on October 1st, the setting up of the National Turmeric Board in Nizamabad. This took the BRS by surprise because they were all busy making jokes about how Arvind failed to get the Turmeric board and how his bond paper was now a joke. With this announcement, one of the key demands of thousands of farmers in Nizamabad stands fulfilled. In fact, the setting up of a Turmeric board in general has been a demand even in the states of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. This is the first time in 36 years that a board is being set up specifically for a product. 

The second major announcement was of setting up a Central Tribal University in Telangana. You may be wondering what is so major about setting up a university. This university was promised in the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014 bought by the UPA. Despite swift approvals from the Modi government, the BRS government delayed land acquisition. And yet BRS started shouting from the rooftops that it is the Modi government that is doing grave injustice to Telangana by not granting the university! After 9 years of dilly-dallying by the KCR government (nicely captured in this thread), the Central Tribal University has finally become a reality. 

The Prime Minister had to make repeated mentions of the Congress party (both in his speeches and tweets) in these two days because it was important to remind people of the corrupt and inept Congress party. These steps were necessitated also because of both the stagnating fortunes of the BJP and the rise of the Congress in Telangana. 

No one in Telangana was ready for the political bombshells or the administrative surprises. It is now up to the state BJP unit to take this message forward. Will these get converted to votes? Time will only tell! 

BJP in Telangana was on the rise last year, but has stagnated recently: What the issues are and how it may change the political scene in the state

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

 “A week is a long time in politics.” is a popular quote often used by many commentators to describe the sudden change in fortunes of leaders and political parties. The politics of Telangana present a perfect case study of this popular quote. Even though things haven’t changed literally in a week,  it is indeed a wonderful case study as to how drastically the fortunes of all political parties have changed from the last time we analysed the political situation here.

After the debacle in 2018 (winning 1 out of the 119 MLA seats), the BJP tremendously picked up just within 4 months to win 4 out of the 17 MP seats in Telangana in 2019. The BJP then appointed a newly elected MP (and a Sangh member for a long time) Bandi Sanjay Kumar as the President of the state unit. The BJP won 2 important MLA bypolls in 2020 and 2021; lost a tightly contested bypoll in 2022; increased their strength from 4 to 49 in GHMC in 2020; and won a tightly contested Teachers Constituency MLC election in 2023. The Party President had embarked on a phase-wise padayatra. The success of this padayatra found a special mention by the Prime Minister himself, who asked other state units to emulate this. The MIM and BRS were even forced to celebrate the Telangana Liberation Day because of an astute move by Amit Shah as Home Minister. 

The rise of the BJP coincided very well with the massive decline of the Congress party. 12 out of the 18 MLAs that won in the 2018 elections jumped ship to BRS by mid-2019! Congress party was not registering their presence in any of the elections ever since (after winning 3 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections). The all-important Munugode by-poll happened while the BJ Yatra was in Telangana and yet Congress failed to get their deposit back in a seat that it held just a few months back! 

At a time like this, when BJP was on the rise and the Congress was on the decline, rumours began to float that the BJP state unit would be getting a new President in place of the then incumbent, Bandi Sanjay Kumar. The BJP got inflicted with the problem that the Congress continuously has – infighting! 

Senior leaders of other parties who joined the BJP were unhappy with Bandi Sanjay. They made a beeline to Delhi and complained to Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda. The subsequent phases of the padayatra weren’t happening now. Attempts of truce seem to be failing and it was getting very clear that all the advantage that BJP has gained is slowly beginning to wash away. The party’s central leadership finally gave in to the demands of these leaders. Bandi Sanjay Kumar was replaced by Kishan Reddy, who is also a cabinet minister in the central government. Rumours were afloat that Bandi Sanjay would be accommodated in the central cabinet as MoS but eventually, he was made a General Secretary of the National BJP (a powerful post nonetheless). 

While the BJP was busy with this infighting, the Congress suddenly started to revive. The win in the Karnataka elections in May 2023 came as a big fillip to the fortunes of the party in Telangana, very unexpectedly! Around this time, a former MP and a former minister were expelled from the BRS party by KCR. They belonged to the Khammam district. BJP has been traditionally poor in this district. Everyone was hopeful that these two leaders would enter the BJP giving it a much-needed boost. However, the BJP failed to woo these two leaders and the Congress Party grabbed that opportunity. And with this joining, now an influx has begun into the Congress party (when just about 6 months ago, there was a line to join the BJP!). To keep up the tempo, the Congress party chose to announce 6 Guarantees for Telangana (on similar lines to what they did for Karnataka) – which pretty much means that they have released their manifesto. 

Meanwhile, KCR, the CM and supremo of the BRS party, has announced candidates for 115 seats out of the 119 seats. He had made a similar early announcement in the 2018 elections too. In 2023, he is contesting from two different constituencies, which in itself is an indication that he is not very strong in his existing constituency. Contesting from two different constituencies is generally done for two reasons – Either to show that they are covering different regions in the state/country, or they are not confident about retaining the existing seat. In KCR’s case, both the constituencies he has chosen are very close to each other – which only indicates that he is not confident of winning the current one. As expected, there were dissidents in the party after the announcement of the candidates. So severe was some dissidence, that KCR had to induct an MLC into his cabinet in a hurriedly convened swearing-in ceremony, just 3 months before the election!  

Elections are due in December 2023. We are nearing October 2023. BRS party has announced candidates for 115/119 seats. Congress party has announced its manifesto in the form of 6 Guarantees. The BJP is yet to do any of this. The BJP, which was on the rise at this time last year, has now stagnated because of the developments over the past 6 months. The 2023 elections looked like a fight between BRS and BJP, just about a year back. It is now a fight between BRS, Congress and BJP (MIM will win their 7 seats). In a 3-way contest, the only beneficiary will be KCR. We now need to wait and watch what will unfold in the next two months. 

Even as India was shining after the G20 summit, Shekhar Gupta could not get over old habits – obsession with terror factory Pakistan

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference: 

 Old habits die hard. Pakistan’s focus on grooming terrorists to attack India is one such habit. Brave jawans and officers of our army continue to scuttle their attacks to ensure we civilians are safe. And in this fight, they also end up making the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of India’s security. It is in times like these (when news of deaths of our jawans, police and officers come in), that a lot of outrage also happens on why we still want to play cricket with Pakistan (given the ongoing Asia Cup). While that outrage is totally understandable, I believe there is another old habit that we don’t outrage enough. And that old habit is about how our English media continues to wish well for Pakistan despite all these terror attacks. 

While we were all rejoicing at the monumental announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor during the G20, Shekhar Gupta had something else going on in his mind – Pakistan! In his infinite profound wisdom, he writes:

Besides challenging China’s BRI, the Ind-ME-Europe corridor lays down stark choices for Pakistan. If it wants to join the global mainstream, it must bury the enmity of India & become a normal state. Or be a permanent Chinese vassal. Days of presuming Saudi-UAE patronage are gone

At a glorious juncture of India’s foreign policy, Shekhar Gupta couldn’t stop himself from thinking and writing about Pakistan. And more importantly, giving Pakistan unsolicited advice. Perhaps because old habits really die hard. Not too long ago, Shekhar Gupta and his entire ilk of English media were dishing out advice after advice to the Indian government on how to be nice to Pakistan. Those were the powerful days of English media driving the foreign policy discourse. The English media editors were an active part of all tracks of diplomacy with Pakistan. The consequence of their proximity to the corridors of the External Affairs Ministry is that Pakistan and only Pakistan dominated our discourse. 

We were all witness to the charade that “Aman ki Asha” was. Pakistan was sending terrorists to kill us and all that our editors cared about was how to make Pakistan look good. Debates after debates were conducted only to shut down voices that demanded retribution and isolation of Pakistan. It was as if India’s role in the world was just to ensure peace with Pakistan at all costs (even the lives of its own citizens!). 

This ilk once said that our Prime Minister hasn’t visited enough Muslim countries. A couple of years later, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) invited India to be the Guest of Honor at their summit meeting. Pakistan’s threats of boycotting this meeting had zero impact on the organization. While India was at the high table, Pakistan’s chair was empty. That spectacular isolation of Pakistan amongst what they considered as their own brethren didn’t teach any lessons to the friends of Pakistan in India. 

When India delivered two big body blows to Pakistan – a surgical strike in Uri and an air attack on Balakot – the spectacular failure of Pakistan to get support from countries of their own brethren indicated how isolated Pakistan was becoming in the world. 

While India was at the forefront of setting up alliance after alliance (ISA; Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure; SAGAR; Global Biofuels Alliance etc.), friends of Pakistan in India were still busy blaming Modi for isolating Pakistan and how that is actually impacting the progress on Climate Change goals for India. No, I am not kidding – an entire article was written on this premise!

Shekhar Gupta may wonder innocently “If Pakistan wants to join the mainstream” and provide unwanted advice to Pakistan, but the cold fact remains that Pakistan has only one obsession – spread Terror in India.  Pakistan’s idea of being in the mainstream is to groom terrorists and kill Indians. Pakistan’s friends in the world – the OICs, the big economic powers – are convinced that Pakistan needs to be isolated for the benefit of the world. Pakistan’s friends in India – the English media – must feel ashamed that they still want to help Pakistan when their own friends have started to isolate it. 

India is a far bigger nation and brings in far higher value to the well-being of the world than what our English media had us believe so far. India surged in expanding her role in making the world a better place to live and gave two hoots to what Pakistan thinks or does. 

Pre-2014, the obsession with Pakistan in our discourse was really something. Approximately a decade later, in 2023, the total absence of Pakistan in our foreign policy discourse is also really something! Indians are ready to conquer the world. Friends of Pakistan in India have to realise this and move away from their obsession. 

The multiple delays in Hyderabad Metro project in the old city area and the constant need for “permission” from AIMIM contributing to them

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

 On July 10th 2023, KTR tweeted that his father and the Honourable CM has instructed his department to take forward the Metro project in the Old City of Hyderabad. Immediately, the president of the Islamist party AIMIM thanked KTR for the announcement.

For an outsider, this whole sequence would seem very natural. After all, an incumbent government is saying that they will be building new infrastructure and the public representative of that area is thanking the government.

Except that neither the proposal nor the “thanking” is new. In fact, this issue is so old that it will baffle you how the MIM has held development hostage for nearly a decade!

2012: “Blood will flow on the streets of Hyderabad if Metro is built”

We go back to the year 2012. KCR was then in his activist mode. He was very good friends with MIM from back then itself. In a fiery & threatening speech, he thundered, “Blood will flow on the streets of Hyderabad” if the Metro project is built through the Old City area. Old City area is basically the area where the AIMIM reigns supreme – often winning 7 Assembly seats and the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat. KCR could have been more statesman-like and promised to review objections of the MIM to bring in a developmental project to the Old City. Instead, he spoke the exact language that the MIM prides itself upon – violent threats!

2014 to 2018: “We are trying to build but religious structures are coming in the way.”

KCR became the CM in June 2014 and then realised that he cannot allow blood to flow on the streets of Hyderabad. So, he decides to call for a meeting with L&T and discuss a realignment of the Old City Metro. Akbaruddin Owaisi was the only public representative present in the meeting with L&T. When BJP questioned this special treatment for Owaisi, KCR came up with a bizarre and juvenile explanation that he was actually meeting L&T officials and Owaisi happened to also visit his office at the same time! KCR was thus forced to call for an all-party meeting instead of the one-party meeting he had called.

Despite all this chaos around the meetings, nothing actually happened. L&T refused to make any drastic changes as proposed. None of the citizens became any wiser as to what instructions the MIM is giving to the KCR government on this.

2020: “We cleared all doubts that MIM had. Inshallah ye jald se jald khatam ho jaayega”

Meanwhile, construction of the Metro was going on in full swing in all other areas. This meant that a discussion on the status of the Old City metro needs to be once again discussed. In 2016, there was another discussion in the Assembly where Akbaruddin Owaisi accused TRS and L&T of resorting to land scams in the name of Metro. And KTR meekly ended the conversation with a commitment to, hold your breath, hold yet another all-party meeting!

A report in the year 2017 mentioned how disappointed the residents of the Old City were feeling about the lack of Metro in their area, whilst the rest of the city was getting to enjoy the fruits of this project.

In 2018, the BJP yet again bought up this issue in the assembly. KTR now stands in the Assembly and says that the delay on the Old City stretch is because there is a problem with “religious structures”!

In the year 2020, KCR speaks in the Assembly on this topic. He now assures us that all doubts and apprehensions that the MIM had have now been cleared. He tells us that he has assured L&T that the Owaisi brothers and all their MLAs will (literally) stand with L&T folks in the Old City when the construction work will be taken up! He communicates the decision to start the construction of the Old City Metro. He also ended his speech with “Inshallah, ye jald se jald ho jaayega, mein bhi iske peeche padtu”.

It still remains a mystery as to what exact MIM objections stopped the Metro for so long; what exact apprehensions of the MIM were cleared; and more importantly, why exactly should the Owaisi brothers stand with L&T when the works are taken up?

2023: “CM gives approval to Metro works in Old City”

We are now in the present! And am sure that now you are also as confused as I am – if approval is given in 2023, then what was given in 2020? What changed from 2020 to 2023? Were there more negotiations to convince MIM? The 2023 tweet also does not explicitly say L&T has agreed to take it forward.

Many are indicating that the MIM finally gave approval as a quid-quo pro deal of KCR opposing the UCC. It was just minutes after KCR announced the opposition to UCC that the tweet on the metro was sent by KTR. Owaisi thanked both of them in separate tweets at the same time.

The need for MIM’s approval at every stage of governance

This is not the first time that MIM had to approve of policy and governance-based decisions by the BRS government led by KCR. We had earlier detailed here how in the pre-2014 days, KCR thundered why governments didn’t celebrate Telangana’s independence day from the Razakars; and then for 9 years had to wait for AIMIM to give him permission to celebrate this day with a different name (just because the Modi government started to celebrate this event).

A senior IAS officer goes to London to pick up some awards that Hyderabad City won. He tags three people in the tweet announcing this – the CM, KTR and Asad Owaisi! What is the pressing need to report to Owaisi exclusively when the entire GHMC area actually encompasses 3 more MPs?

MIM leaders thrash government officials for doing their duty in the Old City; KCR invites Owaisi for a 6-hour TRS strategy meeting on GHMC elections; the Owaisi brothers routinely refer to how the steering of the car (election symbol of BRS) is in their hands, to wild applause by the audience. KTR occasionally comes to the media and says that Owaisi is a shameless person; that BRS is not allying with MIM at all, much to the bewilderment of the media (because TRS and MIM are in alliance in the GHMC for example!)

The Old City of Hyderabad deserves the exact same facilities as the Hi-Tech City of Hyderabad. It is abundantly clear that AIMIM puts religion over development when it comes to the Old City of Hyderabad. By often giving in to their unreasonable postures, the BRS government is doing grave injustice to the people of the old city.

Divisive, fallacious argument by KTR: Breaking down the 321-slide presentation debunking lies about South’s tax devolution and central govt’s infra spend

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference: 

 One of the narratives around the South-North divide is that the South states contribute more money to the central government and are therefore much more superior than the Northern states. Leading this pack is none other than KCR’s son, KTR. He is also a cabinet minister in his father’s cabinet (duh!) and many consider him the de-facto Chief Minister. 

He claims that while Telangana paid 3.68 lakh crores to the central government, it only got back 1.68 lakh crores in return. He has been making this argument since the year 2020 (at that time the numbers were obviously lesser). He went to the extent of calling everyone who countered this fallacious argument “ignoramuses”. 

At various public meetings, he challenged the BJP to prove him wrong and he will resign. He successfully made it sound like the Government of Telangana actually gave the Government of India the 3.68 lakh crores and got only 1.68 lakh crores in return. The fallacious narrative was repeated so many times in the past 3 years that people and the media started believing in it. This dangerous, divisive and fallacious argument went un-countered for nearly 3 years. 

On June 17th, 2023, Union Minister Kishan Reddy (who is an MP from Secunderabad, Telangana) gave a nearly 3-hour long presentation to the people of Telangana. In a detailed 321 (yes, Three Hundred and Twenty-One) slide presentation, he explained along with proofs, how the central government and associated PSUs actually spent close to a whopping 27 lakh crores on various aspects related to Telangana.

Outside of the 1.78 lakh crores of actual money that was transferred to the Telangana government as part of the devolution pool, a whopping 5 lakh crores has been spent by the central government on various infrastructure and other developmental works; 1.58 lakh crores was spent on procuring Cotton & Paddy at MSP; 7.5 lakh crores worth of loans by PSUs to the Telangana government and so on. 

The intention of this article is not to dwell on details of the above graphic; nor is it to ask KTR to resign because he has been proven wrong, and how! The intention is to discuss the phenomenal finance management of the Modi government over the past 9 years that enabled so much spending on infrastructure; and the dangerously divisive and fallacious argument that non-BJP parties are making in the South. 

In one of the slides, we are shown that there has been a whopping 376% in the actual amount that has devolved to the states from 2014 onwards, as compared to 2004-2014 (and that Telangana has seen an increase of nearly 253% increase in the absolute amount. 

By any standard, these are really phenomenal numbers that we have achieved. This is after the fact that Income Tax slab rates have actually reduced the amount of tax we pay; the GST on 100s of items is much lesser than the pre-GST days; Corporate tax is also lesser compared to earlier etc. This fiscal prudence has been achieved by increasing compliance – a feat that remains one of the most underrated achievements of the Modi government. 

In addition to devolving the actual cash of 41% to the states, it is yet another phenomenal achievement of how the remaining 59% was spent by the Modi government. Yet again, another snippet from this brilliant Kishan Reddy’s presentation gave, we see how the infrastructure spending has been phenomenal. Let’s just take the Roads as an example: 

The above graphic tells us that a whopping 1.08 lakh crore was spent on roads alone in just one state (that by the way doesn’t get accounted for the 1.78 lakh crore devolved to the government of Telangana). Similar statistics on Railways, Electricity, Civil Aviation etc are available and all prove the excellent meaningful spending on India’s infrastructure at a scale that was never seen before. 

This brings me to the second and the more important point I wanted to make – the dangerous, divisive and fallacious arguments that KTR (and his ilk) are making to create a rift between Indians. The argument is that South India pays more money to the central government and therefore is superior to North India.  

The argument is dangerous because they intend to showcase South India as the only torchbearer of India’s economy and therefore everyone else should be subservient to them.  By making it only about money, they want us to ignore manpower availability; infrastructure spending; defence spending; rescue spending; relief spending etc

The argument is divisive because it pits Indians against Indians in an Inferior vs Superior battle. True, today’s Bihar and UP don’t contribute as much money as Telangana does (as a %age population contribution) but then we have 10s of 1000s of workers from UP and Bihar working in Telangana, building infrastructure in Telangana. Would Telangana be able to construct so much infrastructure if not for the availability of manpower from other states?  

The argument is fallacious because it is simply bereft of logic and common sense. It is a fair argument to make that states that do better on population control and tax collections should be rewarded. Guess what? Modi government is the first government to have rewarded states that perform well on population control and tax efforts. This has also created a healthy competition between states to do well on these parameters too. 

The central government collects income tax from the people of India, and so to make it sound like it is the Government of Telangana that gave 3.68 lakh crores to the central government is insincere to the core. This argument can simply be extended to KTR’s own ministries – for example – how much taxes are people of Hyderabad paying and how much of that is being spent on Hyderabad? The argument can be extended to even asking how much taxes people of a rich street pay versus how much is being spent by the government on that sheet. We had countered a similar argument the many opposition parties often made on the money released by the central government during natural disasters and did not bother about the huge logistical support that the central government provides (Armed forces, tonnes of relief material, trains etc). 

The Modi government is now releasing this data for all states one by one. It shows how infrastructure spending and the availability of loans to various sections of society are as uniform as it can possibly get. We all still remember the days when Railway ministers used to stand up in the Parliament, present India’s Railway budget but include a slew of trains exclusively for their home states! In a very short time, we have come a long way from travesties such as that. If anything, Kishan Reddy’s amazing 3-hour long presentation proves that the Modi government’s uniform approach towards developing entire India is something to be extremely proud of.

170 years of Indian Railways and The Hindu: 3 racist, elitist op-eds that denigrate Indians who use Railways simply to peddle anti-Modi agenda

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference. 

 On April 16, 2023 Indian Railways completed 170 years. In their Sunday magazine published on the same day, The Hindu published three long articles. The disdainful tone and the absence of coherence made me wonder how these were published in the first place. The answer lay in the common theme across all three articles. 

Coverage in The Hindu

The article “The Folly of 5-star Railway Stations” was written by Gautam Bhatia who is “an architect and sculptor and the author of Blueprint”. Gautam Bhatia is very angry. After reading the entire article, if you think Gautam Bhatia is perhaps angry because Modi didn’t award him the task of redesigning the railway stations (because he is an architect), I really wouldn’t blame you for reaching such a conclusion.  

It’s one thing to be angry. It’s a different thing to be racist. And it’s a whole new thing to get your bigoted piece published in a paper like The Hindu. Do you think my words are harsh? Sample for yourself what he wrote:

Gaurav Bhatia in The Hindu article

Gautam Bhatia tells us that when families are comfortable dining ON the railway tracks, how dare Modi decides to not allow them to do that? Gautam Bhatia is angry that when the “daily passengers are illiterate and willing sit on the ground”, then who the hell is Modi to provide them better facilities? Why must Modi even think that these “illiterates” deserve a better life? The blatant racist overtures are not just limited to poor India but even extend to Ghana in Africa, Bogota in Columbia and Abuja in Nigeria. Gautam Bhatia asserts in the firmest of tones that “For a long time to come, Indian trains and terminals will retain their affinity to African and central American standards than to European ones”.  

At one point in his article, he criticises the addition of food plazas and 5-star hotels in the station upgrades; at another point, he asks why are the Railways not considering “hotel attachments” while upgrading. The hypocritical and condescending article ends with His Lordship telling us that the 16 million passengers who travel daily do not deserve their trains and stations to have cleaner interiors, better seats, malls, escalators, graphic displays etc. The racist tone of the entire article would have made any editor reject it for publication. But this article passed the ultimate test for The Hindu – it criticizes Modi’s plans in strong English. 

The author of “Getting the Future on Track” is a certain T. Kartik. He is a “research scientist whose first love is trains and the Indian Railways”. Now, that’s an interesting bio to boast of. I was looking forward to reading some nice stories or unknown trivia about our Railways from the guy whose “first love is trains and the Indian Railways”. Instead, what we got was an article with a collection of disjoint thoughts that ranged from berating the plan to upgrade our railway stations to questioning the need for Vande Bharat trains to even quoting vloggers and Vishal Dadlani! 

The author wanted to show his command on the English language (using words like zeitgeist, talismanic, wanderlust, esoteric etc) and knowledge about art historians, while wanting to berate efforts to upgrade our infrastructure. He sounded severely upset that “colonial-era station buildings are all set for modernisation that will almost certainly produce drab, mall-like monoliths” He cites the example of 2 stations to tell us how awesome their structure is. The plan obviously is not to demolish the structures but Karthik makes it sound like the Kacheguda station (in Hyderabad) will lose the entire building! A mention is made Prime Minister Modi laying the foundation for upgrading the Secunderabad railway station with nearly 720 crores. I get a feeling that the author is from Hyderabad given how he gave examples of 2 stations from Hyderabad itself. If you are from Hyderabad and if your “first love is trains”, it really beats me why you cannot see the desperate need for the always crowded Secunderabad station to be upgraded with better infrastructure.

The author, Karthik, then suddenly and mysteriously jumps from the topic of modernisation to how vloggers have begun to capture train journeys from across India and are catering to the “wanderlust” of travel-starved people during COVID times! The topic consumes multiple paragraphs and ends with quoting Vishal Dadlani from the year 2020 and then mysteriously he moves to question the need for Vande Bharat trains! Someone who claims to love Indian Railways actually posed the question of “Who does Indian Railways cater to?” just because he doesn’t like Vande Bharat trains! 

Reading this disjoint piece gives the impression that the only reason it was published is that it passes the ultimate test for The Hindu – it criticizes Modi’s plans in strong English. 

The lead article, “Railway Cuisine and it’s regional makeover” was written by Priyadarshini Chatterjee who is an “internationally published food and culture writer”. She starts her lengthy article by telling us – “On the rare occasion that I travel by train these days”. Wouldn’t that be an automatic disqualification to write about Railways in the first place? You don’t travel by train anymore but have been commissioned to write a lengthy piece on food in Railways?

She goes back in time all the way to 1996 when as a 10-year-old, she travelled in the 2nd AC of Rajadhani. Her condescending description of the coach also reminded me of Gautam Bhatia’s filthy description of the first-class coach. See below for their language. 

Coverage in The Hindu

Are these even their real experiences in the first place? Or did they just write these to make them sound like they’ve descended from another planet and come here to insult the people of India? Priyadarshini Chatterjee’s disastrous article continues by glorifying how awesome the food was in the Railways during the British era. 

Coverage in The Hindu

We are then told how the food quality has degraded over the years with only the Railway Mutton Curry being the saving grace and how even that was removed from the menu in the 90s! The article, which began with the author telling us that she rarely travels on the train, now suddenly deviates to what a co-passenger told her during a “recent journey”.

Coverage in The Hindu

What exactly is “constant deterioration of quality”? If you are an international food author, shouldn’t you atleast be able to explain these simple things? Isn’t it amazing how these people find cab drivers and co-passengers as a convenient cover-up for their own views? Isn’t it amazing that these people don’t have the courage to even own up to their views? The article which began with a vivid description of the British-era food service ends with the detailing of menu in various Vande Bharat trains and asks the weirdest question – “Will the gamble pay off?”

Coverage in The Hindu

How is serving Indian Food on Indian trains a gamble in the first place? Why are these folks so upset that we are making attempts to popularise the variety of our awesome food in our own country? What is this obsession with the British colonial era offerings of food and infrastructure? 

Plus, what is with the horrible style of writing in the first place? Train journeys for crores of us are about some really wonderful memories. If the author has to talk about food on the train, why restrict herself to the 2nd AC compartment? If I ever to write about food in Railways, I will talk about the Idli I had in Gudur station; the bread omelette I had in Vijayawada Station; the Aloo Bonda I had aboard the AP express; the Upma Pesarattu I had in Secunderabad station; the dosa in Kakinada station; and what not! I will write about the amazing bonhomie amongst the passengers when they all open packed boxes from home and share their tamarind rice, chapati curries, and biryanis with strangers! 

I am really proud that we are upgrading our railway stations with modern facilities; not sad that some random British heritage will be lost. I am really proud that we citizens will get to have better experiences when they walk into crowded railway stations. I am definitely not crying that those poorer than me cannot be treated as my equals. If I were to complain, I would complain about the overcrowded trains in certain routes (and why we are not able to add more in those routes); I would complain about the fluctuating punctuality of the trains. 

It’s really strange that The Hindu has provided space to racist authors who don’t have a single clue about Railway travels to write so disparagingly low about our fellow citizens and their aspirations. Even by The Hindu’s low standards when it comes to anything Anti-Modi, these articles were an insult to our intelligence. The only criteria for publication seemed that all of them were anti-Modi in their undertone. Indian Railways will rise to even better heights while this batch can continue to crib and live in their British era. 

List of books read so far...

This blogpost is an attempt to maintain a list of books I have read so far (Updated on October 15th, 2023). The list is 154 books long 😊 and spans 25 years. 

The link on good reads website is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/170769422-sudhir-kumar?per_page=20&shelf=read&utf8=%E2%9C%93&view=table# 

Before getting into the complete list, I wanted to share some thoughts on what my best experiences with some books are.

1. Three books by Jeffrey Archer: The Fourth Estate, First Among Equals, Eleventh Commandment. He was the first author I read, and therefore The Fourth Estate blew me off. Lot of people told that it was similar to Kane and Abel, but then I read K&A later, so my favorite is The Fourth Estate. First Among Equals was the first political thriller I read and given my interest in politics, this book gave me lot of highs. Especially the ending! Eleventh Commandment was a action + political thriller - how Jeffrey Archer weaved the story is simply too good. Many of his other books are also my favorites but these three stand out because of what I experienced while and after reading them! 

2. Three books by Sidney Sheldon: Master of the Game, The Other Side of Midnight, The Doomsday Conspiracy. Master of the Game was about diamond trade; I was so engrossed with this book that I couldn't wait to complete it. So I was reading it in class while Maths teacher was busy with Matrix theory. She came to my desk, took the book and I had to beg her later to return it 😀. The other side of midnight is perhaps the first book I read with a powerful female character. The writing was raw in its portrayal of emotions. The Doomsday Conspiracy was thrilling and also my first book that involved some Sci-Fi too. But what I distinctly remember about this book was how Sidney Sheldon explained all his research behind this book - it was fascinating. 

3. Two books by Erich Segal: Love Story and Doctors. I must have read the Doctors book atleast 3 times! It was really beautiful how Erich Segal intertwined friendship, family and also medicine into this book. Can never forget the book! Love Story was perhaps the first book of that kind I read (romance and tragedy) - I couldn't get myself to read its sequel, Oliver's Story, because I couldn't imagine him with anyone else! 

4. The Godfather by Mario Puzzo. What a book! Fat and small font 😀. Towards the end, I couldn't even sleep...so stayed up late into the night to finish it. I also remember it was snowing that night and the parking lot was filled with snow by the time I finished the book. The movie also did perfect justice to the book. 

5. Train to Pakistan by Kushwant Singh. This was the first time I came to know about the horror and tragedy that the Partition of 1947 was. It changed the way I viewed the history that was taught to us. 

6. Two books by Michael Crichton. Airframe and Disclosure. Airframe - because the subject was new and the writing was fascinating. I remember reading this and recommending the book to @Sarath  and he in turn recommended Disclosure! I recommended Airframe to another friend, who chose to read it on a flight journey and spooked his neighbour 😂. 

7. Night without end, by Alistair Maclean. The book was a slow read. But it was fascinating how the author wrote about the night - it felt as though I was also there struggling with the characters in the ice filled region! His other books didn't create the same impact! 

8. A thousand splendind suns, by Khalid Hosineni. This is perhaps the only book that left me really sad after reading it. Mariam stays with you long long after you finish reading the book. What a really fascinating and realistic story; and wonderful writing by the author too! 

9. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Did NOT expect the twists. Just brilliant it was! 

10. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turrow; The Silent Patient by Alex M - both these books also are very very gripping. Difficult to put them down without finishing them. 

11. I like some political biographies too- Rajneeti (biography of Rajnath Singh); Half Lion (biography of P.V.Narasimha Rao) are my favorites because of the many new things I learnt after reading those books.

The below sequence is sorted out alphabetically with the Author's name. It was only recently that I started writing about some of these books (So far, only 5 though!). I've hyperlinked those blogs too. I hope to pick up the habit of writing more about the books I read :). 

S. No	Book Name	Author
1	The Woman in the Window	A.J.Finn
2	The Silent Patient	Alex Michaelides
3	The Last Frontier	Alistair Maclean
4	The Golden Gate	Alistair Maclean
5	Night without end	Alistair Maclean
6	Mahabharat Unravelled	Ami Ganatra
7	The immortals of Meluha	Amish Tripathi
8	The Secret of the Nagas	Amish Tripathi
9	The oath of the Vayuputras	Amish Tripathi
10	Scion of Ikshavaku	Amish Tripathi
11	Raavan	Amish Tripathi
12	Ignited Minds	APJ Abdul Kalam
13	Wings of Fire	APJ Abdul Kalam
14	The Untold Story	Aroup Chaterjee
15	The Final Diagnosis	Arthur Hailey
16	Airport	Arthur Hailey
17	Strong Medicine	Arthur Hailey
18	Worshipping False Gods	Arun Shourie
19	Does He know a Mother's heart	Arun Shourie
20	Eminent Historians	Arun Shourie
21	Governance	Arun Shourie
22	Anita gets Bail	Arun Shourie
23	Transforming India	Atanu Dey
24	Being Mortal	Atul Gawande
25	Better: A surgeon's notes	Atul Gawande
26	The Fountainhead	Ayn Rand
27	Saluting our heroes	B Shantanu
28	Many Lives, Many Masters	Brian Weiss
29	Mahabharata	C Rajagopalachari
30	2 states	Chetan Bhagat
31	One night at a call centre	Chetan Bhagat
32	Then she vanishes	Claire Douglas
33	Digital Fortress	Dan Brown
34	Da Vinci Code	Dan Brown
35	Deception Point	Dan Brown
36	House of Spies	Daniel Silva
37	The Black Widow	Daniel Silva
38	The English Spy	Daniel Silva
39	The Camel Club	David Baldacci
40	Hell's Corner	David Baldacci
41	First Family	David Baldacci
42	The Sixth Man	David Baldacci
43	The forgotten	David Baldacci
44	Saving Faith	David Baldacci
45	The Guilty	David Baldacci
46	The Fallen	David Baldacci
47	King and Maxwell	David Baldacci
48	Simply Lies	David Baldacci
49	Love Story	Erich Segal
50	Man, woman and child	Erich Segal
51	Acts of Faith	Erich Segal
52	Prizes	Erich Segal
53	Doctors	Erich Segal
54	Only Love...	Erich Segal
55	The Class	Erich Segal
56	Rajneeti	Gautam Chintamani
57	Gone Girl	Gillian Flynn
58	Home	Harlan Coben
59	Live Wire	Harlan Coben
60	I will find you	Harlen Coben
61	To kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee
62	Cynical Theories	Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay
63	The Bullet	Iris Johansen
64	Criss Cross	James Patterson
65	The Black Book	James Patterson
66	A quiver full of arrows	Jeffrey Archer
67	The Prodigal Daughter	Jeffrey Archer
68	The Eleventh Commandment	Jeffrey Archer
69	Sons of Fortune	Jeffrey Archer
70	False Impressions	Jeffrey Archer
71	Kane and Abel	Jeffrey Archer
72	The Twelve Red Herrings	Jeffrey Archer
73	Not a penny more, Not a penny less	Jeffrey Archer
74	First Among Equals	Jeffrey Archer
75	The Fourth Estate	Jeffrey Archer
76	As the crow flies	Jeffrey Archer
77	Honor among thieves	Jeffrey Archer
78	A matter of Honour	Jeffrey Archer
79	Shall we tell the President	Jeffrey Archer
80	Paths of Glory	Jeffrey Archer
81	A twist in the tale	Jeffrey Archer
82	Cat'O Nine tales	Jeffrey Archer
83	Heads you win	Jeffrey Archer
84	Nothing Ventured	Jeffrey Archer
85	Tell Tale	Jeffrey Archer
86	Hidden in Plain Sight	Jeffrey Archer
87	Turn a Blind Eye	Jeffrey Archer
88	Over my dead body	Jeffrey Archer
89	Next in Line	Jeffrey Archer
90	And thereby hangs a tale	Jeffrey Archer
91	To cut a long story short	Jeffrey Archer
92	The Firm	John Grisham
93	Runaway Jury	John Grisham
94	The Broker	John Grisham
95	A Time to kill	John Grisham
96	The Pelican Brief	John Grisham
97	The Chamber	John Grisham
98	The Boys from Biloxi	John Grisham
99	The Tyranny of Cliches	Jonah Goldberg
100	12 Rules for Life	Jordan Peterson
101	The Last Flight	Julie Clark
102	Sita's sister	Kavita Kane
103	Newcomer	Keigo Higashino
104	A thousand splendid suns	Khaled Hosineni
105	And the Mountains Echoed	Khaled Hosineni
106	Train to Pakistan	Kushwant Singh
107	My Country, My Life	L.K.Advani
108	The Enemy	Lee Child
109	The Family Remains	Lisa Jewel
110	The Godfather	Mario Puzzo
111	Airframe	Michael Crichton
112	Disclosure	Michael Crichton
113	A case of need	Michael Crichton
114	The Andromeda Strain	Michael Crichton
115	The Maid	Nita Prose
116	Everybody loves a good drought	P Sainath
117	The Insider	P.V.Narasimha Rao
118	When breath becomes Air	Paul Kalanithi
119	The Kalam Effect	PM Nair
120	The Coalition Years	Pranab Mukherjee
121	The Presidential Years	Pranab Mukherjee
122	The Matarese circle	Robert Ludlum
123	Abduction	Robin Cook
124	Vital Signs	Robin Cook
125	Terminal	Robin Cook
126	Harmful Intent	Robin Cook
127	Mortal Fear	Robin Cook
128	Coma	Robin Cook
129	Unsung Valour	Sai Swaroopa
130	Heart	Sandeep Jauhar
131	The Accidental Prime Minister	Sanjaya Baru
132	India Positive Citizen Perspective	Savitha Rao
133	Presumed Innocent	Scott Turrow
134	The Couple Next Door	Shari Lapena
135	If Tomorrow Comes	Sidney Sheldon
136	The Sky is Falling	Sidney Sheldon
137	Tell me your dreams	Sidney Sheldon
138	Rage of Angels	Sidney Sheldon
139	Master of the Game	Sidney Sheldon
140	Nothing Lasts Forever	Sidney Sheldon
141	Are you afraid of the dark?	Sidney Sheldon
142	The Best Laid Plans	Sidney Sheldon
143	Morning, Noon and Night	Sidney Sheldon
144	Memories of Midnight	Sidney Sheldon
145	The Other Side of Midnight	Sidney Sheldon
146	The Naked Face	Sidney Sheldon
147	The Sands of Time	Sidney Sheldon
148	Windmills of Gods	Sidney Sheldon
149	The Doomsday Conspiracy	Sidney Sheldon
150	Bloodline	Sidney Sheldon
151	A stranger in the mirror	Sidney Sheldon
152	Jugalbandi	Vinay Sitapati
153	Half Lion	Vinay Sitapati
154	To the last bullet	Vinita Kamte