BJP’s  moral decline in Mumbai  led to  suburban train deaths

 In Mumbai the then Jana Sangh, the precursor of the BJP, came up from scratch in the 1960s  through popular struggles  like taking  up the issues of   Mumbai’s  suburban  train commuters.  Over the years it has become a rich people’s  front, forgotten its roots and  citizens are paying the price  through  injuries, loss of life,  unbearable travel conditions.

  Mr Ram Naik emerged  as a leader  because  of  the agitations he led on the suburban train issue. As a journalist in the Times of India then in my early career , I remember  he  also had a good  media  and volunteer  network, he used to flood us  with press releases.

 Later, he rose to become the railway minister and he was one of the better performing members of Parliament for many years.

 Over the years, the whole class composition of the party has changed,  from an honest, middle class  , devoted cadre base,  it is now dominated,like most other parties, by big money and lost its priorities

So, the political class must  share the blame for the  death of at least four people and injuries  to several others  after falling off   an overcrowded  suburban  Central railway  train on way to the distant suburb of Kasara  on the morning of June 9.  It underlines the utter collapse of urban governance particulary in the transport sector .

Can one imagine this happening in any city of the world? Commuters have been falling for years from  suburban trains in Mumbai   but not   in such noticeable way  in so many numbers,in a   macabre way.

The political class must be blamed, it   has been  focussing almost solenly on a monumentally expensive and  poorly performing  Metro train network, neglecting  other modes of transport  the  better performing   suburban railway and BEST bus networks.So both these networks are overcrowded due to wrong government policies.

 So we daily witness  the government’s  hideous failure,  Metro trains are running empty while suburban trains are overcrowded, that is in fact an understatement if you ask the commuters travelling in suffocating , congested conditions.

   The Metro claims of  the trains being the pinnacle of technical modernity  have proved to be a laughing stock with  numerous  glitches on a regular basis,  the  newly opened   Acharya Atre   underground Metro station was closed  for a few days  last month  due to flooding

There is  blatant failure  on urban transport in every sector  ranging from  motor cars  to Metro rail, buses,  footpaths, walkability,  car parking.

 Let us look at the car scenario. An editorial in Econonomic Times of  June 4 is a pointer. Fuel Efficient small car where art thou ? is the title and  that  says a lot.

 The Maruti car is generally recognised as efficient  but the sale of  its brands priced below Rs five lakh  is falling  since 2016 while  expensive cars, SUVs consuming a lot of fuel  are selling more and more.

This is worrying Maruti and it should worry every one. It  means we are consuming more fuel and burning more foreign exchange.

  This also shows the widening income disparity in India,  there is a very large section in the rich population which prefers to go for  luxury cars rather than  modest ones.  One can understand its apirations but what about the aspirations of people at the bottom. The system does not cater to its  most basic aspiration of   a  reasonable ride in a bus or space to walk. Even  standing in a crowded bus will do for some but even  that is being denied.

 There is also the shameful contradiction so visible everywhere  we have a surplus of car production and a desperate shortage of buses.  It shows the basically anti people or at least callous nature of governance.

 The Metro failure so far is glaring and one need not go into the details here . But it is the Metro which the government is pampering at the cost of the more affordable, more  efficient, more accessible  bus transport.

  The latest  reasoning of the BEST management  to cut long distance route is deeply flawed. Top world cities  continue  to run long bus routes despite an efficient  Metro  system and in Mumbai   the government wants to cripple   the  bus system.  Let us take the example of London and New York which have an efficient  Metro system.They do have long  distance bus routes in good numbers. In London the Hearthrow  airport o Cryodon commercial complex  route  is 23 miles  and  in New  York there is a bus from St George ferry terminal to La Guardia airport  covering  19 miles.

 So who are our authorities fooling ?

 The municipal corporation in Mumbai, for long steeped in corruption, cannot even manage  car parking. In South Mumbai its  pay and park system  has been closed down because of  corruption . The remedy is now worse than the disease. The parking is now free for the rich, thus robbing citizens of vital  urban space they so  desperately need for walking.

 Every day the government is  getting exposed but it behaves as if all is well. June 5 was  environment day. Transport is the main polluter and government policies are mainly responsible for  the growing menace. It is betraying the urban transport national policy as well as international treaties on climate change.

 Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book on public transport