Just the other day one more 'innovative initiative' was announced by our Yugpurush. Christened as odd-even scheme, it was proclaimed highly successful (successful part is debatable). Now again he is back with the same scheme and there are debates running on every damn news channel around its pros and cons. Of course after much shouting and cross charges debates were inconclusive as is always the case. However one thing stuck me quite strongly and my grey cells became active. What was quite prominent is the limelight AAP has hogged because of this idea. This topic since highly contentious will be debated to maximum and it will always give prime time space to AAP without any expenditure. Mind it, with elections in Punjab next year, any publicity (good or bad) is welcome. In fact Yugpurush already had got international recognition and appreciation for implementing this in January.
One more innovation in this 'innovative initiative' is that scheme make a comeback every 15 days. Had it been implemented without break, this topic would have died its natural death. But with this uniqueness, same reel can be played over and over every fortnight. So much so that our 'party with a difference' will continue to appear on front page providing ample bread and butter to so many media houses. Just to add some spice, AAP is already paying 'kickbacks' in white money with a planned allocation of 500 crores at taxpayer's expense. Interesting to note is that not many print or news media have annual revenue > 500 crores. So AAP is a prime customer always getting positive coverage.
Now coming to idea itself. I would call it a completely absurd and rubbish. Those who do not agree with me should go back in time and present their views on forced sterilization led by Sanjay Gandhi. Whether it was 1976 or 2016, you cannot force such ideas in a democracy. Also it borders on 'Divide and Rule' policy. By including only the petrol/diesel cars, with so many exemptions and if I add those who already have multiple vehicles to bypass this scheme, it might leave me not even with 10% (even 5% would be expansive estimate) of the population and that will comprise mainly middle class. From the highlights of survey in favor of re-implementation - 80% want the plan back on roads. You can do the maths.
One big assumption which this idea is that Dilliwallas do not go for car-pooling. This idea will force everyone to scout for car pools and that will be the biggest benefit. However, I can still recall, 15-20 years back, my Dad was car pooling because of parking problems in his Old Delhi. I was car pooling while going to my office in Gurgaon. For the families where both husband/wife are working, they mainly use one car. Now they might buy another one as EMIs will be cheaper than paying for a cab. Delhi by itself has loads of businessman that travel throughout everyday and for those whom time is money, they will not wait for public transport etc.
So I doubt Yugpurush will deliver any benefit other than troubling that small minority whose votes anyways will not come to him because of his frequent drama. And he seem to be biggest beneficiary, putting him on path to replace 'Pappu' as challenger for biggest post. On a lighter note, it will be interesting to see some FB/Twitter posts from Delhi cabinet using cycles to reach office in this not-so enormous heat - more so in month of May, June or rainy July and August.
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