New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari In conversation with Sunetra Chaudhary, National Political Editor and Bureau Chief, Hindustan Times, in an online session of the 22nd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. Their conversation covered infrastructure, environment and the politics of their home state Maharashtra, where elections are to be held on November 20.
How important a factor are roads for voters in elections?
A country where water, electricity, transport and communication are developed attracts capital investment which leads to growth in industry, trade and business. Per capita income increases and poverty decreases. Therefore, better infrastructure is necessary for the development and progress of the country. For example, we rebuilt the old highway between Delhi and Dehradun which increased the number of pilgrims by 2.5 times. This created a (business) ecosystem of taxis, buses, restaurants and hotels and generated employment.
When we build roads, it brings industries and townships. My Ministry has taken two initiatives to work towards the development of the country. We are building 36 green express highways which will reduce the distance by road. We have built an access control green express highway from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and also increased the capacity of existing roads. The second initiative was to give priority to biofuels and alternative fuels in place of petrol and diesel, hence, we have encouraged ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, bio-LNG, bio-CNG, electric and hydrogen. Through these initiatives, we will definitely reduce the current logistics cost from 14-16% to single-digit value. We can become more competitive in the export market. Our exports will increase by 1.5 times and I am confident that these two initiatives will help in realizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambition of becoming a $5 trillion economy as well as the third largest economy in the world.
Do you think there are any disadvantages in multi-modal development which is harming environmentally sensitive areas and how would you balance this?
This gesture is completely wrong. You tell me, when it took nine hours to burn fossil fuels (petrol and diesel) to reach Dehradun from Delhi, how much pollution was being caused by it? And now when electric and bio-fuel vehicles run, how much less pollution will there be? Time will be saved which will reduce pollution and fuel will also be saved which will also be cost effective. Secondly, is it not necessary to increase the number of tourists in the country for the development of the country? Such thinking does not exist anywhere else in the world.
the country imports What are these people, who are questioning highway projects, doing about Rs 22 lakh crore worth of fossil fuels that cause pollution? I have been working on biofuels for 25 years. We reduced the height of Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill and used the debris on the Delhi-Mumbai Highway, Urban Extension Road (UER) II, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. We used 80 lakh tonnes of garbage in this.
Development and environment should go together. There are three pillars of our society – morality, economy and ecology and environment. We have increased the domestic happiness index by protecting the ecology and environment and reducing air, water and land pollution. We need to think from an integrated approach where our country moves forward as a pollution free society, where everyone has developmental employment and better ecology and environment.
Have you thought of any solution to deal with reckless driving on the highways?
We have improved the road and automobile engineering that was in our hands. We brought the Motor Safety Act to reform the law which ensures good governance and enables prevention. The second thing is human behavior. Being afraid of the law or not respecting it is a strange thing and is the biggest cause of road accidents. Not wearing helmet, jumping light, not following lane discipline. It won’t change if people’s behavior doesn’t change. About 5 lakh accidents and 1.5 lakh deaths occur in our country, resulting in a loss of 3% of GDP. I accept that we have not been successful in reducing road accidents. The media is helping and if every stakeholder in the society works towards respecting the laws, especially if we train students especially, the future generations will be better off. When I was in Switzerland I ate a chocolate and kept its wrapper in my pocket. Usually people do this there, but in India we throw the wrapper (on the ground). We have to change our behavior and media has an important role in this.
Your Ministry has indicated a change in the policy of scrapping 15 year old petrol cars and 10 year old diesel cars. Can you tell us more about it?
Technology has changed and there are benefits in it too. We are gradually moving towards a gas economy and alternative fuels, ethanol based vehicles are coming into the market. These vehicles will require ethanol which will be made by farmers. This will benefit farmers and rural poor and pollution will be reduced to almost zero. The change that is going to happen in the future is for everyone. Don’t we need to reduce pollution? Shouldn’t we allow our farmers and rural population to become not providers of food but providers of energy, fuel, bitumen, aviation fuel and hydrogen? Will this not be beneficial for the Indian economy?
Therefore, we should scrap vehicles older than 15 years and buy new vehicles to get rid of pollution. We also brought a policy of giving 2-3% discount on buying new vehicles by removing old vehicles. I am working on providing some interest-saving options to banks for purchasing vehicles after scrapping. This is for everyone’s benefit.
You are saying that there will be no change in the policy of scrapping old vehicles
We are ready to improve the scrapping policy with a practical approach based on the suggestions received.
Moving towards politics, we are seeing three party factions on each side in the Maharashtra elections – Mahayuti vs Maha Vikas Aghadi. For the first time, two parties have divided into two groups. Do you think this election is unique?
Our strength has increased in Maharashtra. Three armies have become one. Maharashtra government has done good work girl sister plan Has made a good impact. Therefore, I am sure that Mahayuti will definitely win and our government will be formed. The work which the Central Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi did for the poor, women and rural population in 10 years, the Congress could not do in 60 years.
You are saying that your strength has increased, why could we not see it during the general elections in June when BJP’s numbers in Maharashtra had reduced? What differences do you see between then and now?
The public was misled by Congress through false propaganda that if we get 400 seats, we will change the Constitution. Neither will we change the Constitution nor do we have such a desire. On the other hand, the Congress Party repeatedly attempted to change the Constitution. We also had to suffer some losses due to false propaganda. Now people have understood that the Constitution has not been changed. I am confident that we will win by a good margin this time.
The family factor is quite visible in this election. People are upset seeing divisions among families for power. After parting ways with Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar joined hands with AAP (BJP).
I respect (Sharad) Pawar but if there is anyone who has tried to break political parties in Maharashtra, it is Pawar. He broke Congress, Shiv Sena and other parties. People matter more than money; A party matters more than an individual; And a philosophy matters more than a party. I came into politics inspired by JP Narayan during the Emergency. I will not compromise on that. It is important to give priority to ideology and philosophy-based politics to strengthen our democracy and bring about quality change in it. Breakdowns and defection in political parties have become common. There are some who contest every election on different symbols. Every party should try to change this trend.
This time there are many rebels. How is BJP dealing with this issue?
Neither right wing nor left wing, we are known as opportunists – this has become the story of today’s politics. Nowadays politics has become a career. We did politics for the society, nation and the poor, rural areas and farmers in our time.
How will the Maratha factor work in the assembly elections? What is your personal view on the demand for caste census?
My personal view is that any person can become great not on the basis of his caste, religion, language and gender but only on the basis of his qualities. untouchability and Casteism should end in society And socio-economic equality should be established. Backwardness has become a political interest, everyone wants to prove that he is backward. Whoever talks about this is not speaking for the development of his community. We will prosper only when everyone understands what makes a country develop. We do not look at the caste of any actor, we look at his acting, when we go to a doctor to get medicine, we do not look at his caste, we check the effect of that medicine. When we go to a restaurant we check the taste of the food. We should not work to break the society but to unite it.
