Ride the Vande Bharat
Owners and editors of a large number of newspapers, magazines and television channels were surprised when they received an invitation to ride the first engineless semi-high speed train, Vande Bharat Express, to Varanasi, PM Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, on Friday morning.
Modi flagged off the train from the New Delhi Railway station. It is believed that the invitations to the media bosses were sent at the personal initiative of Railway Minister Piyush Goel. The train starts from Delhi early in the morning and reaches Varanasi via Kanpur and Allahabad by afternoon, covering the journey “from the city of Jamuna to the city of Ganga” in eight hours. The 16-coach train has replaced the 30-year-old Shatabdi Express.
The fares were reduced a few days before Modi flagged it off. The Delhi-Varanasi fare is now Rs 1,760, down from Rs 1,850, for chair car, and Rs 3,310 instead of Rs 3,520, for the executive class. On the return journey, the chair car ticket costs Rs 1,700 and the executive car Rs 3,260.
The train has been manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. It became India’s fastest train by hitting speeds of over 180 kmph during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani route.
‘To avenge Bhat and Guru’
There is talk that the Pulwama attack was timed with the death anniversaries of JKLF founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat and Kashmiri terrorist Mohammad Afzal Guru. Bhat was hanged on 11 February 1984 for killing an intelligence officer. Afzal Guru was the main accused in the Parliament terrorist attack of 13 December 2001. Guru was executed on 9 February 2013. It is learnt that a section of social media in the valley some days ago (like previous years) had talked about “taking revenge” for Bhat and Guru’s executions. The same social media also put out a funny message that “the attack on the CRPF convoy was our Valentine gift to India!”
J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik told The Sunday Guardian that it was unfortunate that many political leaders openly showed sympathy to the families of terrorists killed and attended their funerals, thus encouraging many youth to pick up arms. Interestingly, a day before the Pulwama attack, People’s Democratic Party chief and former state Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti backed party’s Rajya Sabha MP Mohammad Fayaz Mir’s demand that the Centre should “return the mortal remains of Afzal Guru to his family”.
Mohammad Fayaz Mir recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the return of the mortal remains of Afzal Guru and Mohammad Maqbool Bhat to their families.
Uncomfortable Sonia
The saffron parivar is thrilled that Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav said that he would like to see Narendra Modi return as Prime Minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While the Opposition was left red in the face with such an assertion, the most uncomfortable was former Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who was sitting next to the veteran SP leader. She looked at him sharply and then sideways at other Opposition leaders in utter disbelief and then just looked down, with a poker face, not believing what her ears had just heard.
‘Thank You, Netaji’
In Lucknow on Thursday, the BJP put up posters thanking Mulayam Singh Yadav for his best wishes to PM Modi. Interestingly, the posters were put up by BJP’s minority wing leader Taahir Hussain. The posters read: “Thank you Mulayam Ji. You said what 125 crore people of the country feel.”
Hussain told The Sunday Guardian that the SP founder’s wish has boosted “our party workers’ morale”. He added, “See the irony, Mulayamji’s son Akhilesh has entered into an unholy alliance with Netaji’s old foe, Mayawati. But Mulayamji is a man of wisdom and he knows what is good for the country.”
Former SP leader and one-time Netaji’s trusted confidant, Amar Singh had his own take on this issue. He said that Netaji’s remarks were meant to create confusion could be linked to allegations of corruption against SP-BSP. “It is just to create confusion to ensure that the top bureaucrats who looted Noida under the guidance of both Mulayam and Mayawati are saved and Modiji gets neutralised.” A bureaucrat was recently raided by the CBI in a case related to sand mining in which Akhilesh Yadav is also under scanner.
To overcome embarrassment, Congress leaders were seen telling everyone in Parliament’s Central Hall that “Mulayam’s good wishes have not worked for anyone.”
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com