A foreign country, Japan, is helping India’s haves by providing loans worth almost Rs 1 lakh crore rupees (how many zeroes does that mean ?) to build and run the bullet train by charging an interest rate of 0.1 annually and that too, to be paid in the next fifty years.
Would the RSS/BJP-run government headed by PM Modi help the distressed farmers of this very country, vast majority of them being Hindus, the real have nots, who are committing suicides every 45 minutes by advancing loans with the same rate of interest and for the same duration?
Sadanand Patwardhan, a renowned political commentator while clearing haze on this BULLET TRAIN hype wrote:
“Some MISCONCEPTIONS need to be cleared. Japan is helping its own DOMESTIC INDUSTRY & BANKING INSTITUTIONS through Modi’s BULLET TRAIN program. 0.1% interest rate looks like free lunch that it is not. JAPAN is having NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES regime in force for long. Therefore by lending to this project it is making far better use of funds than the alternative.
For the project, there are no competitors, no competitive bidding. MARGINS to be made can be FAT. By taxing the profits that Japanese companies make that Government will collect more taxes. We also do not know if interest rate is floating or not. YEN INR Exchange Rate risk can skew call financials. If India gets really lucky and Japan becomes insolvent or a failed state, one never can tell these things, and India doesn’t; then Indians will escape the bankruptcy
guillotine like they did with ENRON despite Congress, Shiv Sena+BJP’s best efforts to the contrary.”
Professor Badri Raina,has penned the following poem on how RSS/BJP rulers of India are bent upon presenting BULLET TRAIN as final moksha for the people of India.
I Give You the Bullet Train
Are you hungry, are you in pain?
Come, I’ll feed you the bullet train.
Have you no roof ov’r your head?
Are you directly under the rain?
Come, jump into the bullet train.
Are you on foot, pursued apace
By rapist, moralist, policeman’s cane?
Just one way to cheat them all—
Ride away in the bullet train.
The bullet train is quick and fast,
It leaves behind the ugly things
In such rapid tryst with development,
You’d think they never did exist.
Are you a farmer with noose in hand,
About to end your endless pain,
Consider a patriotic move—
Go under the bullet train
[Poem by Professor Badri Raina]
Another Nail in the Coffin of ‘Make in India’
The BULLET TRAIN, is, in fact, is another nail in the coffin of Make in India. Earlier a Chinese company was awarded execution of the complete project of casting and installing Sardar Patel’s statue in Gujarat, another pet-project of PM Modi. Incidentally, the same Sardar Patel had ordered the banning of the RSS in 1948 for its role in the murder of MK Gandhi.
The Sardar Patel statue project is believed to be worth three thousand crores of Indian rupees. PM Modi’s another pet project YOGA required thousands of Yoga mats for holding Yoga programmes. The Modi government did not buy these from Indian manufacturers but imported around one lakh mats from China.
Whither Make in India, Mr Prime Minister?
Background:
- Meanwhile, the former Delhi Metro Chief Dr E Sreedharan today said that he was not in favour of bullet train at present, instead emphasised on the need for the Indian Railways to improve the existing facilities.
“This is not the right time for bullet train in the country but there was a need for improving existing facilities, speed, infrastructure and comforts of passengers,” Sreedharan, also known as the ‘Metro Man’ for developing the vibrant Delhi Metro, said in an informal interaction with in an informal interaction with reporters on sidelines of a function here. He said the Railways should concentrate on betterment of the existing facilities at the outset and think of bullet train later. “May be after eight to 10 years, we may require bullet train,” Sreedharan said.
2. Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train Project to Cost More Than GDP of These Countries
The high-speed bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is expected to cost Rs 1, 10,000 crore (about $17 billion), which is higher than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about 83 countries across the world. Japan will fund Rs 88,000 crore for the high-speed bullet train project, which is 81 per cent of the total budgeted amount with will have 0.1 per cent interest and will be required to be repaid over 50 years with a moratorium of 15 years. With this, India will get its first bullet train by 15 August 2022- when India completes 75 years of Independence.
As per GDP data of FY2016, eighty-three countries have GDPs less than the total cost of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project. The GDP of Papua New Guinea was $16,929 million while the GDP of famous holiday destination- Mauritius was $12,164 million. The GDP of Seychelles, which is another popular holiday getaway, was $1,427 million as compared to the cost of the bullet train project. Moreover, the cost of making the bullet train in India i.e. (Rs 1, 10,000 crore) is also three times the size of India’s health budget.