Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi had announced on 3rd June that the public transport such as buses and metro would be made free of charge of women. The timing of such declaration couldn’t be more right as the Assembly election are forthcoming and this is the exact time to throw lucrative promises which may or may not be delivered.
If you remember the last time Kejriwal promised something for free, your mind would definitely try to remember the password of that free wifi he had installed all across Delhi. No, can’t remember it, well how can you, there never was one.
“Arvind Kejriwal often makes announcements which he either does not fulfill or which do not come under his jurisdiction. The Assembly elections in Delhi are due in the next few months and he should stop publicity stunt by making such announcements,”
-Jitender Kochar, Delhi Congress spokesperson said and ridiculed the statement made by Kejriwal.
These hoax promises are not something new for the public and they no longer believe in these white lies anymore. You can’t imagine someone who is consuming tons of knowledge every other second via the medium of the internet to be fooled by such hypocritic statements.
Such kind of announcement by the ones who are craving for power may benefit them and also help them get that position of power for themselves. But it leaves out negative traces in the society, such as segegration of society on the basis of gender, which is totally not fine. How can we truly say that we are working on women empowerment when all we do is throw free stuff at them which is lucrative on the outlook but not actually needed by our independent and strong female counterparts.Decisions like these do not empower them, instead this imbalances the equality in the society. The men of the country need not look at the women of this era with sympathy but respect.PERIOD.
There could be a positive side of the story too if the scheme is actually true and everything turns out fine. The free transport can actually help most of the Indian ladies who don’t go out that much to take this opportunity to go out and explore without spending a dime.
But when looking at the facts and analyzing, it seems to be a Ponzi scheme which most probably is forgotten as time passes by. The DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) is in the hands of both the Delhi and Central Government as it was a joint venture. Both the bodies have to be unison for any new scheme to be sanctioned.
E Sreedharan, popularly known as the ‘Metro Man’ have opposed Kejriwal’s statement and personally wrote a letter to the PM and Central Government stating that they should not let this scheme go through or it will disrupt the economy in a very harsh manner.
“I would very earnestly request you sir not to agree to the Delhi government’s proposal of free travel to ladies in the Metro,”
-E Sreedharan mentioned in the letter to PM Modi.
He mentioned that if the scheme is approved it will only bring upon inefficiency and leads us towards a condition of Bankruptcy. He is the retired Chief of Delhi Metro and has a lot of experience regarding the matter. He also throws light on the issue that nobody is allowed to travel in metro free of charge whether its the Chief of metro or the PM of the country itself. He doesn’t forget to mention that the first ever metro ticket was properly bought and paid for by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was the Prime Minister at that time.
He also warns against the issues that will follow up such as other states demanding their metro and public transport services to be free as well for the female counterpart, which would result in a national level feud where the central government will have to face the all
the heat.
Kejriwal was elected as the chief minister of Delhi last time as he had major public support but thing are not looking good for him right now. He had been ridiculed many a time by the opposition, supporters, former party members, and the public as well. But we may never know what happens in the game of politics till the very last minute and all we can do now is to wait up and see how he will back the statements he made. Well, till then you can enjoy streaming Netflix on your free Wifi provided by the Delhi Government and don’t try to start a roadside fight with strangers when you can’t find that Wifi or you’ll be caught in the act by one of the 1.5 lakhs CCTV installed them all over Delhi.