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Postscript

Coincidental parallel Tharoor was not the Congress party’s choice. And now
with the Kerala legislative assembly election scheduled for
BRIEF FOUR-DAY SOJOURN IN MUMBAI, THE early next year, the Sonia-Rahul leadership has reportedly
Maximum City, which was your correspondent’s taken umbrage that Tharoor — a two-term MP — has ex-
A first port of call when I migrated to India over half pressed legitimate aspiration to lead the Kerala Congress
a century ago, revealed a shiny new metropolis of near- in the assembly election.
global standards. Especially for the well-heeled. Clearly the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which jealously
A new 10.5 km coastal road-cum-tunnel linking Worli guards the Congress as a family fiefdom rather than na-
to Nariman Point in South Bombay has transformed the tional political party, is aware that Tharoor, an articulate
superbly designed and furbished high-rises of Worli into graduate of St. Stephen’s, Delhi and Tufts University
the most expensive real estate in India with per square (USA), accomplished raconteur and skilled debater, poses
foot property prices rivaling Dubai and London. Accord- a threat to the under-educated, homespun RaGA as leader
ing to Urs Schoettli, a Swiss journalist who has experi- of the Congress. RaGa the latest Nehru-Gandhi ‘white’
enced prolonged postings in London, Tokyo, Berlin and hope, has learned nothing from post-independence
Beijing, SoBo (South Bombay) — not Mumbai — with its India’s disastrous tryst with neta-babu socialism. Like his
numerous clubs, excellent restaurants, theatre and parks progenitors, he routinely trashes India’s best business-
and sophisticated bourgeoisie, is the most livable ‘city’ men, promises to restore socialism and favours a caste
worldwide. census which will further atomise — instead of uniting
However beneath the glittering top-soil, all is not well. — the country. And now the mother and son are hell-bent
Mumbai’s poor majority and even the petit bourgeois on hounding Tharoor — quite clearly the best man to lead
have been shunted into barely affordable housing in dis- the party in Generel Election 2029 — out of the party and
tant suburbs, connected to business districts by a danger- into the willing embrace of the BJP. Clear evidence of
ously rickety and over-crowded suburban rail service with scorched earth Plan B.
a death toll of eight-ten commuters per day. According
to a recent study of the National Housing Board, barring
the top 1 percent, the next 5 percent of Maximum City’s Fingers crossed
wealthiest households will need to save 30 percent of
their annual household income for 105 years to purchase N THIS DIARIST’S OPINION, THE JUNE 6 inaugura-
a two-bedroom flat in modestly tidy city wards. This is tion by Prime Minister Modi of the Chenab Rail Bridge
the outcome of over 60 years of socialist five-year plans I(CRB) linking Jammu with the Kashmir Valley is an
of the Central and state governments. Yet lefties and accomplishment of far greater magnitude than sending
woke liberals are up in arms over a joint venture between an Indian astronaut into space in an American rocket to
can-do business tycoon Gautam Adani and the Maharash- live in an American space station. CRB, under-girded by a
tra government to clean-up and develop Dharavi, Asia’s spectacular circular shining steel orb is of modest length
largest slum sprawl in the heart of Mumbai. Any parallel (1,315 metres). But from its reinforced steel foundation
with St. Petersburg in Tsarist pre-1917 Russia is purely embedded in rising hillsides on both banks of the River
coincidental. Chenab, it soars heavenward to 359 metres, 35 metres
higher than Paris’ Eiffel Tower.
Yet while one experiences a rare thrill that indigenous
Scorched earth plan engineers certified by one or more of India’s 3,500 en-
gineering colleges have finally implemented a showcase
HE EVIDENCE IS PILING UP THAT IF IT doesn’t project, justifiable pride is sicklied o’er by chills of appre-
have its way within the Congress party, the Nehru- hension about the capability of Indian Railways person-
TGandhi dynasty is set to implement a scorched nel to maintain and service this engineering marvel.
earth policy. In this 140-year-old party where Nehru has Also about the capability of the RPF (Railway Protection
succeeded Nehru with monotonous frequency for over a Force) to provide adequate security to CRB, sited in a
half century, Rahul Nehru-Gandhi, officially appointed region that’s a happy hunting ground of Kashmiri sepa-
Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha after General ratists and terrorists sent over the border by Pakistan. In
Election 2024 when Congress unexpectedly won 99 seats the past year, there have been four major train accidents
in the lower house, is reluctant to share power. under the watch of Indian Railways with 42 fatalities
In 2022 when Shashi Tharoor, former UN Under and 94 seriously injured. And Kashmir has experienced
Secretary-General and erudite author of 27 books on his- three major terrorist attacks /incidents (including one in
tory, politics and miscellaneous subjects, and two-term Reasi) in which 42 civilian lives have been lost, 66 injured
MP from Trivandrum (Kerala), threw his hat into the with considerable damage to public infrastructure and
ring to contest the post of President of the Congress, the property.
dynasty mobilized against him and ensured that Mal- The plain truth — as evidenced by potholed roads,
likarjun Kharge, a nondescript party functionary from collapsing bridges and government buildings countrywide
Karnataka, was elected party chief. Recently when Tha- — public property maintenance culture is conspicuously
roor was selected by Prime Minister Modi to lead an all- lacking in Indian society. Therefore while the construc-
party delegation to explain India’s strike against terrorist tion and commissioning of the Chenab Railway skybridge
camps in Pakistan following the April 22 massacre of 23 is a matter of national pride, it’s fingers crossed whether
Indians vacationing in Pehalgam (Kashmir) by Pak-based it will be maintained and protected with required care
terrorists, mother-son took exception, proclaiming that and diligence.

90 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2025