डॉ रमन सिंह जी, मेरे मित्र छत्तीसगढ़ राज्य में मंत्री श्री अमर अग्रवाल जी, श्री महेश गागड़ा जी, मेरे छोटे भाई और लोक सभा में आप सबके बहुत ही चहीते सांसद अभिषेक भैया, श्री मोतीलाल चन्द्रवंशी जी माननीय विधायक, श्री अशोक साहू जी, माननीय विधायक, हमारे साथ मुंगेली से जुड़े हुए आपके लोकप्रिय सांसद श्री साहू जी, कोरबा से जुड़ने पर आज के हमारे कोरबा से लोकप्रिय सांसद माननीय डॉ बंशीलाल महतो जी, वहीं पर मुंगेली में श्री सियाराम कौशिक जी विधायक जी, श्री धरमपाल कौशिक जी और कोरबा में श्री अग्रवाल जी और मंच पर और मंच के नीचे बैठे हुए सभी महानुभावगण और आज कवर्धा में इतनी बड़ी संख्या में आए कवर्धा के सभी नागरिकगणों को मैं नमन करता हूँ, नमस्कार करता हूँ और बधाई देता हूँ आज के महत्वपूर्ण शुरुआत के लिए।

जब मुझे पहली बार बताया गया डॉ रमन सिंह जी द्वारा कि कवर्धा से 115 किलोमीटर दूर तक कोई रेलवे स्टेशन नहीं है और कई कवर्धा के हमारे भाईयों-बहनों ने तो रेलवे देखी नहीं है पूरी ज़िंदगी में, तो मैं आश्चर्यचकित हो गया और मैंने शायद ही कोई आज तक इलाक़ा ऐसा देखा होगा जिसको 160 वर्ष तक वंचित रखा गया इतनी सामान्य सुविधा से, रेल लाइन से। और मुझे लगता है मेरे मंत्री बनने के कुछ ही दिन बाद से यह सिलसिला शुरू हुआ कि कैसे आपके इलाक़े को यह सुविधा पहुँचे।

और मुझे आज बहुत आनंद होता है इस बात से कि जो जन्मभूमि है हमारे लोकप्रिय मुख्यमंत्री जी की, जिस भूमि ने छत्तीसगढ़ को, भारत को, इस देश को एक इतना बढ़िया नेता दिया, एक इतना बढ़िया जनप्रतिनिधि दिया, इतना बढ़िया और संवेदना रखने वाला समाज सेवक दिया, उनकी जन्मस्थली पर आज यह कार्यक्रम होने जा रहा है। मैं समझता हूँ उनका जन्मदिन तो वैसे कुछ दिन बाद है लेकिन रमन सिंह जी बड़े उत्साह में रहते हैं, बड़ी जल्दबाज़ी में रहते हैं तो उन्होंने कहा कि मेरे जन्मदिन का भेंट कवर्धा के लोगों को आज ही दे दी जाए।

और मैं मुबारकबाद दूँगा आप सबको कि जैसे भागीरथ जी ने धरती पर गंगा को उतारा था एक प्रकार से अपने पूर्वजों के उद्धार को पूरा करने के लिए वैसे ही डॉ रमन सिंह जी ने आज यह बहुत ही महत्वपूर्ण योजना का शिलान्यास करके कटघोरा डोंगरगढ़ – यह लगभग 6000 करोड़ की योजना है और मैं जब आंकड़े निकाल रहा था तो हमें ध्यान में आया कि गत इतने सारे वर्षों का जब हम पूरा निवेश देखें छत्तीसगढ़ में तो शायद पूरा निवेश छत्तीसगढ़ में 6500 हज़ार करोड़ के लगभग अभी तक बना है और मात्र यह दो लाइनें जो आज हम यहाँ पर और अगले कार्यक्रम में मुंगेली में जिसका आज शिलान्यास करने जा रहे हैं यह दोनों लाइनें अकेले 6500 करोड़ रुपये की हैं।

अभी-अभी अभिषेक भैया ने एक और माँग रखी कि आज़ाद हिंद एक्सप्रेस भी डोंगरगढ़ में रुकनी चाहिए। तो मुझे ख़ुशी है आप सबके सामने यह ऐलान करते हुए कि अब आज़ाद हिंद एक्सप्रेस डोंगरगढ़ में भी रुकेगी।

छत्तीसगढ़ हमारे लिए एक बहुत महत्वपूर्ण राज्य है इसलिए नहीं कि आज पूरे देश में अगर बिजली से सभी को लाभ मिलता है तो उसमें सबसे बड़ा अगर योगदान किसी प्रदेश का है तो वह छत्तीसगढ़ प्रदेश का है, सिर्फ़ इसलिए नहीं कि इतने बड़े रूप में यहाँ पर खनन का काम होता है, सिर्फ़ इसलिए नहीं कि इतना सुंदर हमारे आदिवासी भाई-बहन यहाँ पर अलग-अलग प्रकार से हैंडीक्राफ्ट्स बनाते हैं, अलग-अलग प्रकार से सुंदर वस्तुओं से सुंदर कपड़े बनाकर पूरे देश में भेजते हैं लेकिन इसलिए क्योंकि माननीय श्रद्धेय अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी जी का यह सबसे प्रिय प्रदेश हुआ करता था।

 

जब अटल जी ने इस प्रदेश को बनाया 18 वर्ष पूर्व तब उनकी आँख के सामने एक सपना था, एक इच्छाशक्ति थी कि इस प्रदेश को देश की प्रथम श्रेणी में देखने का सपना लेकर उन्होंने छत्तीसगढ़ का निर्माण सन 2000 में किया था। मुझे लगता है अटल जी ने बहुत सूझबूझ से डॉ रमन सिंह जी का चयन किया 2003 में कि वह भारतीय जनता पार्टी का झंडा लेकर छत्तीसगढ़ का नेतृत्व करेंगे। और मैंने जब आंकड़े देखे गत 15 वर्षों में जिस प्रकार से डॉ रमन सिंह जी के नेतृत्व में इस प्रदेश की तेज़ गति से प्रगति हुई है, मैं भी आश्चर्यचकित रह गया।

जो इस प्रदेश का उत्पादन है वह जिस प्रकार से तेज़ गति से लगभग आज 6.5-7 गुना हुआ मात्र 15 वर्ष में यह अपने आपमें एक देश के लिए इतिहास रचने वाला आंकड़ा है। देश के हर व्यक्ति की जो आय है जो मात्र 10-12 हज़ार रुपये प्रति वर्ष हुआ करती थी आज बढ़कर 90,000 रुपये सामान्य व्यक्ति की आय बढ़कर इस प्रदेश ने एक अद्भुत कार्य करके दिखाया है।

कोई क्षेत्र ले लो, चाहे सड़क का क्षेत्र हो, चाहे रेल का क्षेत्र हो, चाहे बिजली का क्षेत्र हो, चाहे पानी का क्षेत्र हो, चाहे कौशल विकास हो, चाहे स्वास्थ्य और शिक्षा की सेवाएँ हो, चाहे आवास की योजनाएं हो, चाहे अलग-अलग प्रकार से ग्रामीण विकास हो, शहरी विकास हो – मैं समझता हूँ कोई क्षेत्र ऐसा नहीं छोड़ा है डॉ रमन सिंह जी ने जिसमें ऐतिहासिक प्रगति, ऐतिहासिक विकास करके आज यह अटल विकास यात्रा के माध्यम से यह अपना रिपोर्ट कार्ड लेकर पूरे प्रदेश में गत तीन महीनों में हर क्षेत्र में गए हैं। और मैं समझता हूँ जो जन समर्थन, जो जन सैलाब उमड़ता है जहाँ भी डॉ रमन सिंह जी जाते हैं वह अपने आप में दर्शाता है कितना लोकप्रिय रहा है इनका 15 वर्ष का कार्यकाल।

मैंने 24 तारीख़ को भी जो कार्यक्रम में भाग लिया, जिस प्रकार का उत्साह देखा और आज का जो यह ऐतिहासिक जनसमूह कवर्धा में बाहर उतरा है इनको आशीर्वाद देने यह अपने आप में दर्शाता है कि आगे आने वाले चुनाव में मैं समझता हूँ एक ऐतिहासिक विजय डॉ रमन सिंह जी की भारतीय जनता पार्टी की आप सब सुनिश्चित करने के इरादे से आज यहाँ पर आए हैं।

मैंने पिछली बार एक बात छत्तीसगढ़ में रखी थी जो आपके सामने भी रखना चाहूँगा। पिछली सरकारों ने छत्तीसगढ़ को रेलवे सुविधाओं से लगभग वंचित रखा। अभी-अभी आपने देखा सिर्फ़ 1186 किलोमीटर की रेल की सुविधाएँ पूरे छत्तीसगढ़ राज्य में दी जबकि इतने बड़े रूप में कोयला उत्पादन होता है, आयरन ओर बनता है, इतना ज़्यादा कारखानों से उत्पादन होता है लेकिन रेल की सुविधाएँ मात्र 1186 किलोमीटर रही।

अब डॉ रमन सिंह जी के नेतृत्व में आगे आने वाले दिनों में यह लगभग दुगनी होने जा रही हैं, दुगनी। और जो 2009-14 के बीच जब हमने आंकड़ा निकाला तो मात्र 1500 करोड़ रुपये पाँच वर्षों में, औसतन तो 311 करोड़ रुपये रेल की सुविधाओं में छत्तीसगढ़ में लगाए गए थे। मुझे आज ख़ुशी है बताते हुए कि वह आंकड़ा आज लगभग 6 गुना करके 2014-2019 के बीच जो रेल की सुविधाओं पर निवेश हुआ है छत्तीसगढ़ में और इस वर्ष में होगा वह लगभग 6 गुना हो गया है। इस प्रकार की तेज़ गति से रेल की सुविधाएँ छत्तीसगढ़ में आ रही हैं।

और एक रेल मंत्री के नाते अगर मुझे कुछ देखना हो तो इस पर क्या संकेत मिलता है, तो यह संकेत तो सीधा है जब डबल इंजन केंद्र सरकार की और राज्य सरकार की डबल इंजन रेलवे व्यवस्था के साथ लग जाती है तो जैसे रेल गाड़ी डबल इंजन के साथ तेज़ गति से दौड़ती है वैसे ही जब केंद्र सरकार और राज्य सरकार मिलकर संयुक्त प्रयास करते हैं तो विकास भी बहुत तेज़ गति से जनता तक पहुँचता है। और यह विकास सिर्फ़ रेलवे में नहीं है यह विकास हुआ है स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं में, यह विकास हुआ है शिक्षा में, प्रधानमंत्री आवास योजना से हर एक व्यक्ति को अपने ख़ुद का घर मिले 2022 तक यह सुनिश्चित किया जा रहा है।

कौशल विकास को तेज़ गति दी जा रही है, हर व्यक्ति को बिजली मिले अपने घर में और चौबीसों घंटों बिजली मिले यह काम डॉ रमन सिंह जी ने, प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने किया है। किस प्रकार से हर घर में उज्जवला योजना के तहत मुफ़्त में LPG कनेक्शन पहुँचे जिससे कोई भी हमारी माता-बहन को धुआँ न अपने शरीर में लेना पड़े, किस प्रकार से साफ़-सुथरी व्यवस्था बने रोज़मर्रा के अपने जीवन में इसका काम प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी और डॉ रमन सिंह जी ने अपने हाथ में लिया है।

हर व्यक्ति को अपना जन धन खाता हो, हर किसान को अच्छा समर्थन मूल्य मिले, न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य डेढ़ गुना हो लागत से, प्रधानमंत्री फसल बीमा योजना के तहत कभी भी कोई भी प्रकार की अगर समस्या आए तो किसान को नुक़सान न पाना पड़े, पर्याप्त मात्रा में खाद मिले, पर्याप्त मात्रा में बीज मिले, हर प्रकार से किसानों की अनुसूचित जनजाति और आदिवासियों की रक्षा हो, उनके लिए प्रगति के मार्ग बने, उनका जीवन कैसे और बेहतर बना सकें यह काम प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी और डॉ रमन सिंह जी ने, 15 वर्ष डॉ रमन सिंह जी के एक प्रकार से सुनहरा शासन आप सबने देखा है।

मैं समझता हूँ जो पंडित दीनदयाल उपाध्याय जी ने जो मार्ग बताया था, हम सबके लिए जो दिशा निर्देश दिया था कि समाज में जो अंतिम छोर पर खड़ा व्यक्ति है उसका कैसे जीवन सुधरे, उसका कैसे उद्धार हो, उसके परिवार का, उसके बच्चों का कैसे उद्धार हो यह हम सबकी प्राथमिकता रहनी चाहिए। इसका जीता जागता अगर कोई उदाहरण है तो वह छत्तीसगढ़ की सरकार का काम है।

और मैं बधाई दूँगा प्रधानमंत्री जी को और डॉ रमन सिंह जी को जो अन्य-अन्य कार्यक्रमों से उन्होंने इस प्रदेश को और ख़ासतौर पर राजनांदगांव और इस पूरे इलाक़े में जो विकास का कार्य किया है इससे मुझे पूरा विश्वास है यह प्रदेश और तेज़ गति से प्रगति करेगा, हर प्रकार से यहाँ पर आगे हमारे सब का जीवन और उज्जवल बनेगा, और अच्छा बनेगा।

और मैं आप सब से यह अनुरोध करूँगा कि आगे आने वाले चुनाव में कोई प्रकार की गलती किसी से न रह जाए। सुबह से ही हम सब ने तैनात रहना होगा कि हम अपना जनप्रतिनिधि ऐसा चुनें जो केंद्र सरकार और राज्य सरकार मिलकर और तेज़ गति से आप सबके जीवन में ओर उजाला हो, और सुख और समृद्धि आए इसके लिए काम करे। इस आप सबके आशीर्वाद को लेकर मैं आज यहाँ से जाने वाला हूँ और मुझे पूरा विश्वास है आप फिर एक बार मुझे यहाँ बुलाएँगे विजय का जुलूस लेकर। जो आज विकास का संकल्प लेकर हम सब यहाँ से जा रहे हैं उसको विजय में परिवर्तित करके हम सब आपके बीच पुनः एक बार उपस्थित होंगे।

आपको बहुत-बहुत शुभकामनाएं। भारत माता की जय।

आप सबको बहुत-बहुत शुभकामनाएं।

 

Q: Good afternoon everyone and welcome back. I am glad we have Mr. Goyal doing this session soon after lunch. It’s called the graveyard shift usually because people have had a heavy lunch, some are still drifting in but I know Mr. Goyal. He speaks very engagingly on a variety of issues, he has handled very key ministries and more importantly he is one of the most astute politicians in the country. So I am hoping that we can cover all of that. I am going to start with an audience question though. How many of you have taken a railway journey in the last one year and being on the Delhi Metro doesn’t count, right. So that’s about, keep your hands up please, that’s around 30 people out of 300, 10% now I know why you are the treasurer, right 10%. I think the big challenge for you is to really increase this 10% to at least around 25-30%. So, can you start off by telling us how you plan to do this?

A: Thank you Sukumar and before I start I must compliment you this is a delight to see. This has been the agenda of my Prime Minister, the government and me personally also and it’s really delightful to see that you have brought in the green element into this program, just absolutely outstanding. Compliments to the HT team for this initiative. This is the first time I have attended a programme where a backdrop as beautiful.

You know when I just took charge of the Railways and today is the 366th day since I took charge as the Railway Minister. I think there was just one mool mantra that drove all the effort in programs that I have worked on and that has been to bring the charm back to rail travel. I have very fond memories of my childhood when a train journey with cutlets and toast with tea in that thermos being served by a liveried butler was truly a very elegant experience.

Sadly what happened over the last 70 years was that the Railways expanded its patronage many times over, in fact, I think in terms of passengers or in terms of freight we are now servicing about 1500% more people and more freight is carried than what it was 50-60 years ago, a growth nearly 15X whereas the services or the available infrastructure has grown barely 25-30%. So, in a manner of speaking we have overloaded an existing infrastructure to the point of breaking down.

Prime Minister Modi understood that unless we invest heavily in connectivity, in creating infrastructure on roads, railways, airports and airways, of course, digitalization has been an important element of our government’s work, we will not be able to really prepare India for tomorrow. Something like what Kennedy had said “who made the country great, the roads made America or America made roads”.

Similarly, the Railways in the Indian context have a very important role and therefore I am happy to share with you that in the last four years and the current year 5th year together cumulatively we will be investing on the capex in Indian Railways about 5,30,000 crore which is two and a half times what was invested in the five years before we came in. And in a manner of speaking if you look at the last let’s say 30 or 40 years this would be a growth which would probably be 15 or 20 times the CAGR that we have seen over the last 30-40 years.

And to my mind this kind of investment has empowered the Railways to literally once again try to see we can improve on our punctuality, we can improve our safety, we can improve on the quality of catering, whether we can make our railway stations a better experience for the passengers, can we move larger quantities of freight working smart, using intelligent technologies, using artificial intelligence in our planning process and while I can reel off as many statistics on different areas of the Railways as you want. If you can expand my time a little bit I can give you so much dope of what has happened in the last four years.

But I’ll just share one small statistic to explain how this government gets tracking on a particular task and achieves results. In the year 13-14 there were 118 accidents which were caused because of unmanned level crossings, 118 in the year 13-14. Prime Minister Modi decide that we should eliminate all unmanned level crossings in this country. In the first four years we eliminated about, in the first three years until I came in about September 4th is the date I took charge last year we had eliminated a good 1100 every year.

There were about 550 thousand or so when I became minister a year ago and obviously since I had come in the backdrop of a very serious accident my first meeting was on safety around 7th or 9th of September last year and I said in one year I want every unmanned level crossing eliminated in this country. I can promise you the entire team, there were 30-40 in the room and many on the video screens all over the country they were aghast, they said this is not possible period. I said नहीं मेरे को अगले गणपति तक अनमैन्ड लेवल क्रॉसिंग्स ख़त्म करने हैं .

I actually took out the date 12-13 September तक I want all unmanned level crossings gone and then I gave them a grace, I said 30th September. Then the Board wrote all sorts of, did all deliberations all over the country and said this is not possible we will do it in the ABC routes. I accepted that on file I said fine let’s prioritize the ABC routes, the ones which have busy traffic but I still want everything eliminated and we kept pursuing them.

I am happy to share with you ladies and gentlemen, in the last six months between April and now we have had only three accidents because of unmanned level crossings as against 118 in 12 months barely three years ago. And today as I speak to you, as on 30th September we have been able to eliminate nearly 5000 of those 5500 and today we have only 474 unmanned level crossings.

Now you can jolly well say I failed, I have not eliminated all. But I believe we should have very high aspirational targets and that encourages the team to perform and now they have promised me that by December we will complete it. I have told them do it by 31st october कश्मकश चल रही है अब देखते हैं  31st अक्टूबर को हो जाएगा may be 15 नवंबर को हो जाएगा but it’s something which they themselves did not believe is possible but it’s they themselves who have achieved it. I didn’t do a single unmanned level crossing converted to a manned or a RUB or an ROB.

But it’s only you have to empower your team, you have to encourage them, set very high aspirational goals, monitor their work, keep encouraging them on a regular basis, hold them accountable when they are not performing and these are not any mool mantras that is something new to anybody in this room. And my own sense is as the Railways gets safer, as the Railways gets cleaner and I would like all of you to visit any railway station near you and see the stark difference between the past and now.

We certainly have challenges. I have an infrastructure which in many cases is 150 years old. I have a signaling system which is a hundred year old. I still have coaches which are of a design which is called the ICF coach design which is actually not the best way to travel in and not the safest journey. So, what did I do, I discontinued all manufacturing of ICF design. The board was aghast that you can’t do that, I said no we are going to do that.

And look at the transformational journey. A factory which was initiated in Raebareli which is coming under the Amethi constituency, need I say more about it, it was announced in 2007-08, until 14 it had not produced a single coach. In the year 14-15 we gave it a trust, it started manufacturing. Last year it made some 700 coaches of LHB design, a good study design where fatalities can be avoided. Before that it had made 350 so it doubled production last year. Current year it will do 1500 and my target for next year is that it will make 3000. So, from 14-15 we have been able to ramp it up rapidly from almost one coach produced in 13-14 to 3000 next year, already we are at 1500 this year.

Q: I am glad you are speaking about manufacturing because in some ways I think the reason why the railways were such a key part of the first industrialized wave of growth in many countries was because one it mainstreamed destinations put places on the map, put them on the market, allowed for movement of goods and people but it also did two other things. The first one was it acted as in some ways an engine of manufacturing, right, it created a wave of manufacturing and it also resulted in a lot of jobs. Do you see Indian Railways starting to do that in a significant manner especially at a time when one you want to focus on making in India and two you have to create jobs?

A: Absolutely, in fact, while I have about 1.3 million people working directly in the Railways our own initial assessment is there are at least 2.5 million people who are working in the ecosystem of the Railways. After all you will imagine if we are investing 150,000 crore (one lakh fifty thousand crore) in the capex of the Railways in the current year obviously it’s leading to a lot of opportunities for people across the country. Contracts are being given out, material is being procured, parts are being procured.

This year we will be manufacturing, for example, 5500 LHB coaches which until three years ago would have been about 400-500 coaches. This year we are now going to be making about 700 or so locomotives which used to be maybe five years back 300 or thereabouts. The dedicated freight corridor started maybe 10 years ago but when we came in in 14 only 25% of the contracts were given out, 24% of the land was acquired. Today 99% of the land is acquired, I need a few hectares more and it’s all sorted and 100% of the contacts have been given out.

We have already started one stretch. Before March we would have started three stretches of the dedicated freight corridor. By end of 2020 we would have completed a project which hadn’t even taken off until 2014 and which is about 2800 km across the country which will ease the freight traffic, give more scope for passenger trains, ease the pressure on the passengers struggling to get tickets on Shatabdis and Rajdhanis.

I mean the whole effort and attempt is can we prepare Indian Railways for tomorrow. I’ll give you a shocking statistic which will take the daylights out of all the gentlemen and ladies assembled here. Can you believe until 2014 the Railways had not even planned to have a double line connecting Mumbai to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. There were stretches on these main routes which were single line stretches. Can you imagine a 160 year old railway which connects Mumbai-Bangalore, Mumbai-Chennai and Mumbai-Hyderabad with stretches which are single line sections.

We took it up on mission mode and I think in another 9 months or 12 months all of these three routes would be a 100% double line. And when you double a line it’s not as if you have doubled the capacity as any OR person or an engineer here will tell you, you actually create eight times the capacity because otherwise trains are crossing each other, going into the loop lines, I mean I have become half an engineer in the last five years.

Q: I want to move on from what I asked you about jobs to Jobs per se because I think this has become one of the most pressing issues at this point in time and it has also become a very contentious issue. You have various arguments flying around about whether jobs are being created or jobs are not being created. What is your sense? Has your government been able to create jobs?

A: I think the nature of jobs in the whole world today is changing. Let me take a simple example all the people who are working here in the organizing of this event none of them would come into the category of a job. All the cameramen, the staff working to keep this event going whoever is the event organizer none of them would come in the category of a job.

The days when you had power plants producing 4000 MW of power, a large steel plant coming in and giving maybe 50,000-60,000 people jobs and that was the category of jobs that the whole nation aspired for. Everybody wants a Railway job, everybody wants a job in Steel Authority of India Ltd., they would love to get a job in Power Grid Corporation.

Now that category of job or a government, central government, state government job cannot ultimately provide growth and progress for a nation. Entrepreneurship today is taking centre stage. More and more people are becoming innovators. I mean if 500,000 people are running an Uber cab service in Delhi none of them is coming into the category of job or is counted as a person who has got a job but he is providing a service, he is occupied, he is making good income and he is working.

I think the days where you could just look for people looking for category A government job or a category C or D or E government job those days are now well past behind us. People today are looking to I have an aspiration for much more. There is a set of people who will continue to look for government jobs certainly they should and they will but it’s not as if they are not occupied, it’s not as if they are not willing to make an income or a livelihood out of alternate occupations. This government has focused on encouraging that innovation that this country or that entrepreneurial spirit that this country always has demonstrated for centuries now.

I mean after all under the MUDRA loan scheme where you are giving loans from 10,000 to 10,00,000 rupees, if we have 130 million loans being given out in a short span of three years, it’s no small number. You have almost given out 500,000 crore of loans to small entrepreneurs. Somebody a lady who started a knitwear shop and then became the owner of a 30 machine enterprise.

I mean I don’t know how many of you saw Sui Dhaaga Made in India or Mad in India whatever it’s called. I mean I am a little bit of a movie buff but it was so encouraging to see that movie Sui Dhaaga and I am not getting any commission to market that movie, okay. But truly it gives you a little pep, it gives you an encouragement that that’s the India of tomorrow where we may have great fashion designers but we also have a handloom or a handicraft oriented couple being able to come in centre stage, win a fashion show and then create an enterprise of their own having value.

So, you will observe that this government has actually eliminated all taxes on handicrafts, on the small cottage industry, on Kota stone manufacturers, people who make murtis you know the stone idols or clay idols, I know this because my wife just bought for our pujas राम, लक्ष्मण, सीता और हनुमान का वह जो राम दरबार होता है she just bought that and she actually came home and pleasantly when she told me the price and she said I asked him के GST, he said zero.

I really felt very happy that Mr. Modi and Mr. Jaitley have encouraged this kind of Industry where the common man, the small artisan gets encourage to develop his business and become an entrepreneur on his own. So, that’s the thinking of this government. When we encourage solar power or we encourage decentralize electricity generation in the country do you realize we provide at least 15 to 20 times the number of jobs that an NTPC thermal power plant would have provided for the same capacity and if you look at the output of power generation maybe the job generation will be 30X.

So, our whole focus is to get everybody across the country looking at staying where he is and empowering him to start his own business, start his own enterprise and from there flourish to become a self-reliant, self-sufficient citizen of this country, not dependent on government for all the rest of their lives and as you may recall Prime Minister Modi’s comments in Parliament on MGNREGA that yes we are forced to continue with MGNREGA for some more time but that’s because we have left behind a nation or we have inherited a nation where you have not provided enough opportunities for people to become self-sufficient.

And our focus is to empower every citizen in this country be he in any part of the country to become a person who can make a livelihood of his own. After all when we talk of doubling farmers’ income, when we talk of taking solar energy across India in every farm through a scheme which we are going to launch shortly, when we talk of encouraging people to take MUDRA loans and develop their small businesses, when we have taken telecom to the remotest corners of the India, when I plan to take WI-FI into 6000 stations all across the country so that all the villagers around in that neighbourhood can come to the railway station and enjoy Wi-Fi faster than the fastest in the country, I won’t take the name नहीं तो एक और आपके सुबह के सेशन की तरह मुझे allegation आएगा कि हम कम्पीट कर रहे हैं.

But the point is that what we are trying to offer the people is service at the lowest cost and in the railway stations, of course, Wi-Fi is free at 40 mbps which is the fastest speed you can get in the country and I do hope to see more villagers and more youngsters in the villages getting connected to the rest of the world so that they also become people who aspire for a better and better future for the country.

Q: Okay, I am going to just ask you one question on the economy, one because of your background and two because you managed that portfolio for some bit of time. There is a sense that your government is losing the economic narrative in terms of where the rupee is and although the stock markets aren’t really a reflection of economy in terms of what is happening in the stock market, in terms of oil prices which again I understand aren’t largely a global thing. But these were all factors that were playing out in 2013 when you were in the opposition and just like any opposition should you took good advantage of that and now I think as they say the shoe is on the other foot so the other side is taking the same sort of shots at you. So, do you think you have lost the economic narrative a little bit?

A: Well absolutely not, in fact, the people of India are very smart. The people of India are always watchful of what a government does when the times are good and what does a government do when the times are bad. Go back into history a little bit, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inherited the economy way back in 98 it was the economy which had double-digit inflation, very low foreign reserves, high interest costs and high fiscal deficits, high current account deficits, he grappled with that story and it took some time because we had the nuclear Pokhran test then there was a little bit of a period where we had sanctions on us then there was a crisis in around 2000-2001 with the dot-com bust.

So, really Prime Minister Vajpayee got a very short window in which 2003-04 we saw the economy turn, interest rates came down very significantly, we saw fiscal deficit under control, current account became a surplus but the window was very short that he was able to present to the world in terms of economic betterment of the nation. But he was able to leave behind for the next government an absolutely strong base.

We had current account surplus, foreign exchange reserves had gone up from 29 billion in 98 to 103 billion dollars at that point of time very significant growth in 2004, interest rates were down to the lowest ever in a long time, the bank rate was probably 5.5 or plus-minus 25 basis points, inflation was down to 4%, growth was up to 8%. So, you had a robust economy. That’s the type of time when the country should have invested heavily in building up reserves and building up a strong base for the country.

Sadly between 04 and 09 let’s say 04 and 08 the government did not use that opportunity to strengthen its arms, to strengthen its reserves and when in 2008 the world faced a crisis, India almost collapsed simultaneously with the Lehman disaster. You saw the fiscal deficit within a year against a budgeted 2.5% becomes 6.4%, within a year. I have never in my life 50 years of my life let’s say at least 35 years of working life ever seen a year and a miss management of the economy as bad as 2008 and 09, when fiscal deficit was allowed to slide to 6.5.

That’s the period concurrently they started giving out bank loans indiscriminately between 08 and 14 just to pump prime the economy without any concern for what future they were leaving behind, how they were eating into the vitals of the economy. You saw after that interest rates spike, you saw inflation spike, you saw fiscal deficit never really coming under control, we inherited 4.5 or 4.9% or there about Shaktikant ji will remember the exact figure, we had high current account deficit when we came in. So, on every economic parameter we got an economy in shambles.

What did Prime Minister Modi do, he focused both on the macro and on the micro. On the macro he strengthened the economy consistently year-on-year. Prime Minister Modi and Finance minister Mr. Jaitley have successfully steered the economy for four years in building up a solid foundation where we have strong foreign exchange reserves, where we have been able to keep inflation under control at points of time CPI was down below zero, it is not a great situation but that was a super achievement from double-digit to 1% or so when Shaktikant ji was the finance secretary.

I think in a manner of speaking four years we have strengthened the economy. Every macro and micro parameter is better. We have recognized all the mess that we inherited, brought that out to fore. It’s like going to a doctor and not knowing what disease you have, what is your problem. The banking sector was a mess but we were hiding it under the carpet. All stress of the banking sector was known to at least this room assembled here.

We all knew whatever greening was happening. We all knew how restructuring and repeated restructuring was only postponing the problem. We all knew there were assets which could never service the debt, it was an unsustainable situation. We all knew how a loan was converted to a 25 year bond back ended where whose true value was only 3% or 5% but on the face of it, it was not recognized for the irregularity that was existing.

I think we have today an economy which is able to withstand the current international pressures. You are right we have a situation like 13. The dollar is getting strengthened because of the quantitative easing in the US. They are sucking out 10 billion dollars and now it’s going to be 40 or 50 billion dollars every year, Fed rates have gone up like crazy, oil prices are shooting up consistently despite that have you realized that in 2013 the rupee-dollar was at Rs 68.86, 2013 mind you Sukumar, we are in 2018 five years later if the dollar is at 73.5 effectively in five years the rupee has depreciated less than five rupees which on 68.86 is about 7%.

This to my mind in five years is the best period India has seen where the rupee has only deprecated by 7% in a five-year period. What happened between 13 and 14 is an FCNR(B) bond was introduced. 34 billion dollars were raised. The rupee drastically improved from 68.86 to at one point of time 59 rupees. We inherited it at about 63-64. We have now repaid that entire 34 billion dollars between 16 and 17, with interest we have repaired that. And yet we have been able to manage the currency, keep it strong and we have just 7% deposition in five years on a CAGR it would come to barely 1.1 or 1.2% CAGR deprivation in five years.

I challenge anybody here to show me any period in Indian history where we have had such a golden run on the rupee-dollar as since you raised that issue. I don’t know if M.K is unhappy about it or happy about it. And if there is any flaw in any of my comments please do give me a call I’ll come right back.

Q: I am going to move on to a little bit of politics. This morning the first session in the morning we had the Congress President and one of the most interesting things he said was the Congress is about the imagination of 1.3 billion Indians and the BJP just has one imagination, its own, right and it wants all of them to have its imagination. His exact quote was “Congress is about 1.3 billion imaginations, the government wants India to have just one imagination, its own”.

A: I know for the last I mean more than 48 years almost out of independent India’s 70 year history we have had one family rule this country. Congress has ruled it almost for about six out of the seven decades of independent India. Yes, it was about the imagination of 1.3 billion people who had thought that the promises they had made of Garibi Hatao they will fulfill. Certainly it was the imagination of a billion plus people that they will give them a better quality of life.

It was the imagination of a billion plus people that probably they will not have to take the ladies will not have to take 400 cigarettes equivalent smoke while they are preparing a meal for their children. I am sure millions and millions and millions of Indians had the imagination that their children will get good healthcare, their parents will get good healthcare. I am sure 1.3 billion Indians desired in their heart of hearts that they will not have to wait for maybe hundred years to get an electricity connection in their home.

Yes, it was the about the imagination of 1.3 billion Indians that he is talking about but unfortunately वह शेख चिल्ली की तरह इमेजिनेशन ही रह गया है, कुछ इम्प्लीमेंट कुछ हुआ नहीं। हम लोग शेख चिल्ली में विश्वास नहीं करते हैं। We don’t believe in imagining things which are just going to remain imagination but not get actionated on the ground.

After all why is it that 300 million people did not have access to electricity in this country after 48 years of that family’s rule or was it a deliberate design like a leader in Bihar had that keep them deprived of all the basic amenities of life, keep them poor so that they continue to imagine a better future but never get that better future. I wonder what the reality is!

We have ensured and Saubhagya is a scheme which I am proud Prime Minister Modi has brought to India where in the next six months every single willing consumer, every single home will have electricity in their house. We are planning for a country where every citizen will have a shelter on his head with 24×7 electricity, with a toilet, with clean drinking water, quality healthcare for his children, for his parents, good quality education where we are taking Digital India to the remotest parts of India, connecting India through a network of road, rail, airways as Prime Minister says हवाई चप्पल पहनने वाला भी आज हवाईजहाज़ में घूमता है 2500 रुपये में.

My driver now travels by air when he goes to his home town because he says it’s much cheaper, it’s faster and I am able to come back to work at the right day and yet spends more time with my family. Now these may sound irrelevant to an audience in which only 10% people have travelled in a train but if there are only three accidents in six months as against 118 in twelve months in such a short span of time due to unmanned level crossings, I think I am reaching out to that poor man and his imagination that he will get a safe travel to the city or to his hometown.

When I am providing 8.25 crore toilets in the homes of the poor in India, for us it maybe a thing we take for granted but for that person it’s a big deal. When I am providing Ayushman Bharat 50 crore citizens of this country free healthcare, I believe it’s about giving dignity to that person. It’s about giving an opportunity that he doesn’t get into debt trying to cure a child or a father or a mother or a grandfather and then for the rest of his life live like a bonded labourer repaying the debt that he may have taken for a family member’s health care.

When I am creating skills amongst the people of India, I think I don’t know whether it is the imagination of one individual or I think it’s the imagination that we would all love to adopt where we are looking at a new India which is actually taking all these programs to the last man at the bottom of the pyramid which Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay left behind as the political ideology of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and now the Bharatiya Janta Party.

To my mind what Prime Minister Modi wrote on 2nd October on Mahatma Gandhi Ji’s birthday, we have started the 150 birth anniversary celebrations, if any of you have read his edit page on many papers, on many websites, Hindustan Times as well, I think what he wrote in that that Mahatma Gandhi had articulated his world vision in 1941 ‘the construction constructive agenda’ as he called it which he fine tuned in 1945.

I dare say and I would like Hindustan Times to actually research and see if any other leader in independent India, I don’t even want you to worry wasting your time on those 48 years because you will find abysmal performance at that time but if any other leader including anybody from that family has even done half the programs that Mahatma Gandhi had suggested the country should take up in the constructive agenda of 1945 which can compare to the work of Prime Minister Modi and his government towards making India the India of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams, we have no problem in acknowledging.

We are working on the imagination of one individual and that individual is Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of India कि Congress should wind up shop, make India Congress-mukt on the one hand and make India poverty free on the other hand.

My friend 2019 and I am not being arrogant about it, I remember one sentence that Piyush Pandey had told me when we were preparing for the 2014 election यह जनता है जो सब जानती है, है न ऐसा एक डायलॉग है. I think the people of India knows who brought them electricity in their home, who made India power surplus, who brought transparency and honesty in India, who ensured that the natural resources of this country are not given out to friends and family and members of a political party but on a fair and equitable basis are available for everybody to participate in a transparent auction and win through a bidding process, who brought toilets to their homes, who brought a Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in which you can get a six lakh rupee loan.

And most parts of India may not be Mumbai, Delhi, most parts in India in 7-8 lakh rupees you can get a decent home with a toilet, with electricity, with water, taking a six lakh rupee loan from a bank in which you will get 6.5% interest subvention for 20 years, 6.5% interest subvention for 20 years for a six lakh rupee housing loan under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana where we want to see every citizen of India own his own house.

These are not small achievements. These are not small programs. These are not small goals. These are an aspirational 1.3 billion India whom we are trying to serve and they jolly well know who is working day and night relentlessly without leave, I have got only three days leave in the 4.5 years when my son graduated. That’s the kind of India we want to create and we have the confidence that the people of India know what’s good for them.

BJP will come back with 300+ seats and the NDA will get a two third majority in the next election. I am making that production at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. You can judge me for my leadership qualities in May 2019 after that.

Q: In Maharashtra and I am asking you this because it’s your state, you are from Mumbai, you know almost all the people involved in the question I am asking. The BJP seems to be having some issues with its long-term ally the Shiv Sena. What do you think will happen in 2019?

A: Sukumar is at its politest best today, isn’t he. I am a happily married man. What happens in a marriage. I think we should always be willing and happy to take some criticism on the chin. I think we should be happy and willing to argue on a few things and I think we should be willing and able to have a partnership with an ally as long as the understanding at the top is understood, is good, we don’t have any ruffling at the leadership level.

I think it’s more a little bit of grandstanding which often comes to the fore and it’s certainly very painful just like you had in your morning session a person very pained by the situation that the nation has brought him to. In a similar fashion in Maharashtra today the BJP is the numero uno party. We have overtaken everybody else in terms of popularity. Devendra Fadnavis is far up there in terms of local leadership compared to any other local leader.

Now these equations have changed very rapidly since Prime Minister Modi took charge of situation. I mean between 13-14 and now things are only getting better for the BJP in Maharashtra. So, we will certainly have a little hiccups here and there but I can assure you we are winning 42 to 44 seats in Maharashtra in the next election in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly I can assure you will be a clean sweep. I think in partnership.

Q: Thank you, you have given us lots of numbers to play around with. Okay, I am going to move to some audience questions and I will obviously skip questions about people who had bad experiences on Indian Railways, right.

A: Certainly we should not skip that, you should take that because it’s just like Mr. Modi said मैं गाजा बाजा से बार-बार सुनाऊंगा मनरेगा को इम्प्लीमेंट करते हुए कि यह दुर्दशा आपके 60 साल, 65 साल और 48 ईयर ऑफ़ गांधी फ़ैमिली मिस रूल की वजह से है. Same way मैं समझता हूँ इस कमरे में  I think everybody in this room will appreciate we have got 4.5 years, this is a 160 years old organization, we have had 65 years of independent India before us, tell me when it has been better than today ever before.

I am happy to take questions which are about bad experiences but obviously you will have bad experiences. It’s a process. I cannot switch on a switch or do a magic wand and say hey lo and behold from tomorrow all trains are perfect, punctuality is great 100%, trains are clean, catering is perfect. I have been trying to cancel catering contracts, they go to court, they get relief, I am stuck both ways, no action can be taken and I have to wait.

Today I was talking to the chairman what do I do get some of these damn contractors out. He said sir the moment we take them out, court gives them relief. Better we let the time pass, once they are out we will have very strict technical conditions and qualification criteria, get the best contractors in. So, it’s a process. I acknowledge it’s not going to be perfect tomorrow but that’s where an intelligent Indian audience understands what is happening and what is good for them.

Q: Five questions on toilets. I have one word at stench?

A: Yes, absolutely it’s a good question. Let me explain it to you. I am sure you are aware we have introduced bio toilets in the Indian Railways. Now earlier all the muck in the toilet used to just go down on the track, I am sure you all are aware of it. Certainly bio toilets were introduced before we came in but at petty numbers, small numbers. After Prime Minister Modi came in we just aggressively gone in for bio toilets. We have now I think out of 55 odd thousand coaches bio toilets are already installed in about 38,000 and in another 12 to 15 months 100% trains will have bio toilets.

Do you know what that means, that was open defecation in another form. We would have eliminated open defecation on the Railways. All that muck which was going on the tracks was causing the stench which I hope you will find much less today than ever before. You know what was that causing, uric acid in that was causing a spate of accidents because tracks were getting corroded. Let’s realize what’s happening.

Yes, the bio toilets have one problem of the stench sometimes going back as a reverse stench. Ladies and gentlemen I am trying to educate the people of India we all know that it takes a lot of behavioural change. Now they just put some garbage into that bio toilet, it stops the you know the closure of the valve and therefore there is a reverse stench coming in. You help me, you help me sensitize, can Hindustan Times and Hindustan in Hindi tell the people of India be conscious. I have provided a dustbin in every toilet, don’t put the garbage in, put it in the dustbin and you will never have the stench problem.

Having said that I have already started working on 500 toilets I am experimenting with vacuum just like the aircrafts have. It’s going to be expensive but I have said no I will do it. I have about 250,000 toilets which will mean I have to invest nearly 10,000 crore to put vacuum into all of these toilets but I am still planning to do that and I am hoping that with economies of scale I will bring down that cost. But I am still working on that that I will put a vacuum, behavioural change आते-आते शायद समय लगेगा तो चलो alternates में देखते हैं .

So, this is I am very conscious of these things but if I sit idle और मैं शेख चिल्ली की तरह इमैजिन करते रहूं यह चली जानी चाहिए  stench then you should blame me but when I act I think the people appreciate me.

Q: And we would be happy to partner with you to educate the people as you said. Final question when was the last time you took a train journey?

A: I regularly take a train journey. In fact, when I started my journey as a Railway Minister my first journey was to Shri Mahavir Ji, it’s a Jain temple town where I have been going for over 30 years. My mother was a Jain. And I think it gives me a lot of spiritual awakening when I see the clean environments of the temple, not of the area outside the temple though, we are planning to work on that also.

But if any of you have noticed you go to any religion, you go to a church, go to a Jain temple, go to a Hindu temple, go to a mosque, go to a Jewish prayer synagogue, they are all so clean, they all are so serene, they all are so beautiful. That’s the kind of country we all want to make.
And to my mind for each one of us it’s a part of our national duty that while there is a lot to criticize, there is a lot to complain about let’s also pick out what’s happening in the country, let’s also see how we can contribute to making it happen better.

I mean after all when we came in here we saw this beautifully organized program clean. Nobody is going to put a paan stench over here or throw some garbage here, right. What is Prime Minister Modi trying to do, create a country like this, it’s just neat and clean so that everybody’s behaviour changes accordingly. Same way to my mind we should all start travelling in trains right to be your experience, right to be what’s wrong and I promise you even when I get a message.

I have been woken up at 4 o’clock in the night, I have been woken up in a hospital bed where I was sleeping on my seventh day after being the Rail Minister, my mother was admitted, I have been woken up by a very senior congress leader while I was sleeping in All Indian Institute Of Medical Science where my mother was admitted at 2 o’clock with a problem which we resolved at 2 o’clock in the night.

So, we are a responsive government working 24 hours to serve all of you. Please travel in a train right to be experience, let it be good bad or ugly I am happy to take all of that but it will help me do my job better. So, please give me your constructive criticism. Please give me your ideas. I am sure this room alone could give me enough ideas to keep me busy for the next 6-7 years.

Thank you very much.

…And passionate Minister for Power and Renewable Energy, Mr RK Singh; an old friend with whom I have had the occasion to speak at a Conference way back in November, 2014, Mr Eicke Weber who also handled the Fraunhofer Institute and a lot of innovative work in the field of renewable energy in Germany; our colleague and senior leader of the renewable energy sector, somebody who actually held our hand, just like a father figure and taught us what renewable energy is all about, somebody I think you would give an arm and a leg for renewable energy and promoting renewable energy – Upendra Tripathi, the Director General of International Solar Alliance; my colleague, again somebody who bought a lot of dynamism into the Renewable Energy Ministry, Secretary Anand Kumar, Additional Secretary, Praveen Kumar.

Because I see a lot of colleagues from the renewable energy sector here today, without taking everybody’s names, I must say that it’s a sense of homecoming for me to be amongst all of you distinguished ladies and gentlemen. A warm-warm thank you to all of you who have participated in the renewable energy sector, in the RE-INVEST Conference-2018, and to all the distinguished delegates, both from India and abroad.

In some sense, I think this Conference and the second one at that is not about investment alone. While certainly this is RE-INVEST 2018, I was thinking about what this Conference has brought to the table. I was trying to read some of the daily newsletters. I was trying to run through the various agendas that were discussed over the last three days. And if we include the opening session where the honorable Prime Minister spoke, since 2^nd October, I think this Conference has been in some sense also a rejuvenation of the entire sector.

In a way, this Conference has also discussed various ways to reform all that we have done so far in the renewable energy sector. Probably, a lot of plans have been reworked during the course of the last 3-4 days. You must have reviewed all your strategies to take this to the next level. I am sure a Conference of this scale and dimension will recharge all the stakeholders in the renewable energy space. This should repower the efforts that all of you are putting in. In a way, it reminds all of us of our commitment towards a better future, a better tomorrow for the young generation. I can go on and on about what we can do about the word ‘RE’, but let’s hope the ‘Renew’ or REINVEST-2018 will help us rewrite history, and when maybe a few decades from now, people look back and see how this journey started.

I think this grand programme, the huge exhibition, the 20,000 delegates, the participation of probably over 70 countries, 40 Ministers coming for the ISA Ministerial General Assembly – all of this put together will be written in golden words as the take off point from which renewable energy entered the next phase of development – somewhat like when you are launching a satellite, after the initial thrust that is given it detaches from the past and then gets into the orbit and flies high, soaring away into the atmosphere, probably trying to reach the sun.

And in some sense, that’s the kind of goal Prime Minister Modi has given Mr Singh when he talks about ‘one world, one sun and one grid.’ And I wish you very well in all your efforts, in all the efforts of this entire team. I remember at one point of time, there was an empire which used to claim that the sun never sets on that empire. India will provide the future where we will provide inspiration to future generations to create one grid around the world so that the sun never sets when it comes to generating power and feeding the millions and millions of people’s energy needs.

And I do look forward to a day when we can have transmission lines crisscrossing continents and oceans, so that the sun can become the primary source of energy – not coal, not oil, not natural gas, it will be the sun, it will be wind, it will be hydro power, it will be hydro power, it will be bio-waste, it will be waste to energy. All of these renewable energy sources actually becoming the source of energy, actually becoming the source which will ensure wheels of development, of progress, in a net zero or a carbon-free world that we are looking at to achieve.

I wish all of you the very best in these efforts to achieve these very ambitious goals. And certainly, I believe that these goals are very much doable. I have yet to come across any target, any aspiration which cannot be achieved, and given the leadership that you have in your sector, I am quite confident the dynamism that we have seen in the last year, the rapid progress where we have almost doubled the country’s renewable energy generating capacity, added 72 GW in a short span of time and are planning to take it up to the next level in a very-very rapid speed. I am sure this collective effort of this team will make this happen and will ensure success in this very-very important programme for this government.

Very often we say solar is transforming India. In some sense, I believe India has also transformed the solar energy sector across the world. I dare say it was the rapid and expansive thrust that was given to solar energy by Prime Minister Modi, particularly, when he scaled up our ambition to expand solar energy from 2.5 GW to a 100 GW, which is 40 times by 2022. He actually showed the world what economies of scale and rapid and transformational journey to achieve big goals can lead to.

The completely transparent equal opportunity and corruption-free auctions that the renewable energy sector introduced in India has not only helped drive down prices of solar energy to below thermal or coal based power costs, but has actually helped the entire world bring down energy costs, given the achievements of the solar power industry in India and given the fact that the world today sees a huge opportunity, sees volumes becoming so big that one can actually produce power at extremely competitive prices.

And I must compliment all of you stakeholders in this sector to have made this happen, to have given a run for money, both to Mr Singh in his job as a Power Minister, handling the thermal power sector also, and to me trying to figure out what will happen to coal in the years ahead.

But as they say, I don’t know, you must have all heard of the acronym ‘BHAG’ – a lot of people in the world today are running away from the real problems of climate change. I don’t want to get into a diplomatic spat, so I would any particular individual references. Minister, the ‘BHAG’ in hindi stands for ‘run’, and there are two ways to look at running.

One is that you can run away from a problem, as some people and some countries are doing. And the problem I am addressing here is climate change. And another is to run to achieve good results to address the problem, and I must say India has chosen the path of running to achieve ‘Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals’ (BHAG), and actually make a difference to the future of the planet, future of the world and not get deterred by any obstacles, any complications that may come up in our ambition to leave behind a better planet for the next generation.

In some sense, India has embarked on probably the world’s largest ramp-up of renewable energy ever witnessed in the past. And we are not going to stand on this. We are hoping that this will only be the base on which we will rapidly expand further, so that we can become largely a renewable energy-driven power sector. We do believe going forward costs of battery and storage are going to become more affordable. And clearly, I do hope it doesn’t become what Tony Seba says that power will be available free of charge and may actually be sold on the corner store in small units available like your mobile talk time.

But clearly, one can see that the days of expensive power are going to be over, going forward. Power is going to become more and more affordable. Minister Singh has embarked on probably one of the world’s most ambitious programme, Soubhagya, by which he hopes to ensure, and I don’t think he hopes, he’s committed to ensure that every single willing consumer, every household in this country gets electricity in the next three or four or five months. And clearly, the progress that has been made in that and the enthusiasm with which the entire country has adopted the Soubhagya Yojana, I am convinced that he is going to be 100% successful. And I wish you and all your colleagues well in this very-very major initiative.

To my mind, for us in India, renewable energy comes very naturally. We have been a nation which has always been very conscious of avoiding waste. We believe that the kind of wasteful use of energy across the world along with large amounts of waste generated in different forms. I mean it could be a simple thing like a uneaten pizza, which ultimately is causing damage to the environment. After all, that pizza was dough-made somewhere or the other, a pizza cooked somewhere or the other, ingredients transported from one place to the other.

If one looks at the entire ecosystem, every element of waste – it could be energy waste, with buildings all over the world, whether it’s Manhattan, whether it’s Tokyo, whether it’s Sydney, whether it’s London – brightly lit 24-hours a day, whether it’s day or night. Despite the fact that the sun may be streaming in, we put vanishing blinds and block the sun and put on lights in the day hours.

In the night, nobody may be working in offices, but you have tall 100-storey buildings brightly lit up, possibly because it looks nice. But all of this waste and waste in every form, it could be food waste, it could be plastic waste, it could be the tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of garbage that we are generating all over the world. All of this waste is damaging the world, is harming society, is harming the human race. And I believe we in India have a duty to show the world a new path, a path that is not something new to us, a path that we have inherited from our ancestors, a path that is very much a part of our heritage, a part of our culture, a part of our tradition where waste was looked down upon.

I remember as a child, I could never walk out of my room, leaving the lights or the air-conditioning on without being taunted by my mother or by my brother that hey, ‘you just go right back and switch off the lights, switch of the fan, turn off the computer.’

I think we need to bring back that consciousness, not only in India but across the world towards waste. I think we celebrate Energy Conservation Day sometime in December, 4^th or 5^th or 6^th December. And I would urge upon you Minister Singh that this year, let us take a massive campaign across the country. And if we can engage with other partner countries around the world, can we make this a year where we remind the world that each form of waste adds up to huge amount of cost, not only economic cost, not only social cost but a huge human cost.

And I think no better year than the year when we are starting to celebrate the 150^th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi – somebody who symbolizes simplicity, somebody who symbolizes cleanliness, somebody who would not let a speck of waste in his whole life to the extent that he had a rule that he would not leave one speck of grain on his plate uneaten, to the extent he would not wear one shred of clothing more than essential, to the extent he would not waste on sip of water beyond what was needed whether it was for sanitation, whether it was for consumption, whether it was to bathe, whether it was the wash his clothes which he did himself.

No better role model than Mahatma Gandhi for this nation to follow and no better opportunity than the year 2018-19 to bring back that vision, that passion that Mahatma Gandhiji had to put an end to waste, wasteful consumption, wasteful expenditure. And I think if we can bring back that spirit in the next generation also, we will truly be doing service not only to our motherland but to the world at large.

Prime Minister Modi has very recently been honored by the United Nations, the highest environment honor that they could give as Champions of the Earth – somebody who has really worked hard to bring back consciousness about the environment, somebody who when the world was talking about the inconvenient truth actually wrote, penned down his thoughts, about convenient action. Somebody who believes that it doesn’t make sense crying over spilt milk or sitting in your office or your home and pointing fingers at somebody else, but who believes that let us be the change that we want to see in the world.

Somebody who was willing to buy solar power even at Rs 17, which is close to 25 cents, way back when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, realizing full well that in the initial period even if we have to pay more, somebody will have to kick-start the mission, somebody will have to bite the bullet, knowing full well that there will be a day when volumes will come in, when products will be made in India, where economies of scale will come in, where innovation will prevail. And when he announced the 100 GW target way back in 2015 or end of 2014, I believe he had the vision to see that India will lead the world in its journey towards renewable energy and India will show the way of cost effectiveness in making a programme successful, making a programme economically viable, making a programme stand on its own feet without subsidy and showing the world that what is good for India is good for the world and is good for all humanity.

I think no better example of the success of Prime Minister Modi’s vision, and I would say in some sense, I have at least been a management student. I have been a accountant and investment banker. Mr Singh has been a bureaucrat with long years, and I see a lot of persons from trade business and industry here. But it took somebody born in a remote village in Gujarat from a humble background, selling tea at a railway station while he was a young lad, studying in an ordinary school with no great gadgets, learning under a kerosene lamp or possibly a street light if there were any at Vadnagar to be able to visualize what a simple LED bulb can do to the nation, can do for the world.

And the fact that he embarked on a mission to change the entire country’s lighting from the old incandescent power-guzzler bulbs to LED bulbs and set an ambitious goal to save 40,000 crore rupees of our Indian consumers’ electricity bills, reduce the power consumption significantly in our homes, bring down the wasteful use of electricity to light streetlights, homes, offices, factories. Set an another Hairy Audacious Goal of replacing 770 million bulbs in a short span of 4 years.

It was a visionary Prime Minister Modi who set that goal and I think it was the nation of 1.3 billion people who adopted that and I was reading this morning on your Ujala Mobile App that not only has EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Limited) been able to cross the 30-million target themselves, but the private sector has chipped in with about 910 million LED bulbs sold so far. Collectively, 300 million is what EESL has sold, 900 million is what the private sector has sold and 1.21 billion LED bulbs have been sold in India, and 4 years are not yet over from the time we sold the first LED bulb on 1^st May, 2015.

Three years and six months down the road, the target of 770 has been exceeded by all of you, the collective effort of Mr Singh, his team and the people of India to replace 1.21 billion LED bulbs, bring down the cost by nearly 87% in the short period. And as many countries have been saying, India actually has led – I am not playing a pun on the LED – but clearly, we have led the world’s efforts to make LED a household product, to make LED affordable across the world. And more and more parts of the world are now moving towards ambitious targets on replacing old lighting by LED lighting.

I can only compliment Minister Singh and the entire team in the Renewable Energy Ministry and all the stakeholders in this sector for all the good work that you have done. While concluding, I would just like to offer my humble contribution towards your efforts to promote renewable energy, to add Indian-made products into India and suggest that the Railways and the Renewable Energy Minister work together on a programme where we can assure over the next five years a 10 GW procurement by the Indian railways of solar power with Made in India products only.

As India respects WTO, without falling foul of any WTO, the railways being a government entity can procure only Made in India products, can stipulate only Made in India procurement of 10 GW in the next five years. If you want to make it longer, we can make it 20 GW in the next 15 or 20 years, which we will assure to pick up. We can run a transparent programme, a transparent bid, invite participants from India and all over the world to come and set up manufacturing in India and give an assured offtake for the Indian railways, which we will use ourselves. And my desire is that in the next ten years the Indian Railways – of course, we will be converting to 100% electricity and it will be the world’s first railway of the size of the Indian railways, there’s no comparable example. Even the United States has only 2% railway running on electricity, the rest is all diesel.

India will be the world’s first large railway system which will be 100% electric. In the next five years and in the next ten years, we want to make the Indian Railway a net zero emitter of carbon. And I invite all of you to participate in this, I hope, another audacious goal. And let’s work together Mr Singh, Mr Anand, Praveenji Bhanu and your entire team. Let’s show the world that what India can do is unparalleled. Let’s lead the world to the next level of clean energy. Let us show the world that we in India care for the world, care for humanity and we can committed to leaving behind for the next generation, for all the young boys and girls in this room a better future, a better planet.

Thank you.

Dr. Saraswat, somebody we all respect, somebody we all look up to for advice whenever we are grappling with serious technical issues, and most appropriately, somebody who is steering this dialogue during the next two days on understanding how technological advancements can play a role in the Railways, in the metro. Shri Lt Gen S.K. Srivastava, Shri Pradeep Aggarwal ji, Shri Arvind Arora, Mr. Goyal, all the distinguished participants of this important IC-TRAM conference, ladies and gentlemen.

When I was reading the thought process behind this conference, and if I recall correctly, I had addressed last year also this conference. I think a lot of water has flown under the bridge between last year and now. I was a rookie Minister at that time, I didn’t know the ‘R’ of Railways and my colleagues who were with me at that time must have been wondering that this little kid has come in and started interfering in all our work. A good old established Railway Board running it very efficiently I would say, but in its own way and somebody comes in and ruffles the feathers a little more than welcome. But I do hope at the end of one year I am looking for probably an introduction in some program where I go, where I am not remembered for the power sector, but I would also be remembered for the railway work.

It’s been a very enjoyable year of learning for me. Undoubtedly, as is going to be discussed in this conference, unless we evolve with technology, evolve with time, an organisation cannot survive. And therefore, even last year I had found that the discussions that you had were very focused on what technology can do to make Indian Railways safe, once again bring the charm back to travelling in trains, make it efficient, help mobility be more customer friendly, move high volumes of freight, and to my mind, technology is the only input, which can significantly impact the future of Indian Railways as I have seen over the last one year. Actually, today I complete one year, exactly today.

And I would like to share with you the Japanese story on Shinkansen, because we also have our own fair share of naysayers in our country. Whenever you talk of new technology, whenever you talk of introducing some out of the box idea, you have a lot of resistance. I am given to understand when the Shinkansen was first conceptualised in the 50s in Japan by the Japan National Railways, many Japanese politicians and academicians both had strongly opposed it. They were of the view that this will be the downfall of the Japanese Railways.

It was a theory called the “railway downfall theory” that the Japanese government or the people who are introducing Shinkansen technology are crazy. They are investing such large volumes of money just to bring speed and safety to the railways, how does that matter. And, if one looks back I think that has been the journey of technology all through the years. I am sure when the horse carriages were replaced by steam locomotives also there must have been enough naysayers.

Just like I am told that when the Rajdhani was introduced in 1969, even the then chairman of the Railway Board had opposed it, why do we need a Rajdhani? We are a poor country, we have a system which works and therefore we should not promote even a fast or a semi-fast train like the Rajdhani in the country. It’s very elitist, it’s very bourgeois. To my mind, I am facing somewhat a similar situation today.

I remember in one of the meetings with the Railway Board and I try to have my periodical luncheon sessions with them, hoping to work together as a team, to take the technology initiatives forward. When I was I thought making some suggestions but may not have been able to convey it well, a dialogue had come in and since we are all local I don’t know maybe a couple of foreigners I will translate it into English also, but the dialogue was said in Hindi so it’s better quoted in Hindi again और मुझे यह बताया गया कि साहब यह सब आप बोल रहे हो यह तो ठीक है, लेकिन देखिए फिर भी रोज़ सुबह दिन शुरू होता है उसके पहले रेल व्यवस्था शुरू हो जाती है और दिन में 22 हज़ार गाड़ियां निकल जाती हैं। कोई रेल मंत्री हो न हो, कोई बोर्ड मेंबर हो न हो, 22 हज़ार गाड़ियां रोज़ निकलती हैं रेलवे की।

It’s a viewpoint. We can draw a lot of satisfaction from this viewpoint. And for your benefit the comment was that at least irrespective of who is the Minister or who is on the Railway Board or who runs it or doesn’t run it, we have 22,000 trains getting out of this system every day. But I don’t think we can rest on that laurel alone. It’s a great achievement, undoubtedly. It’s a matter of pride for all of us that the wheels of the railways are moving, they’re moving over 22 million passengers every day, they are moving nearly 3 million tonnes of freight every day, trains chugging along all through the country.

But whether that is the best service that we can give to our customers, whether we are truly working with a focus as Mahatma Gandhi ji had said whose 150^th birth anniversary we are now celebrating, are we truly focused that our customer is our king, are we really giving him the best deal possible. And to my mind, we have a lot to answer for. I see a lot of young children in this room and certainly since most of us are in the same age group in our 50s and 60s other than these little young boys and girls, I think it’s a moment for all of us to reflect what Justice we as a generation have done to our nation and what we are going to leave behind for our children tomorrow.

Will they look back after 20 years and remember us for some good work or curse us for having lost some very-very vital opportunities. And I think that’s the question that all of us face in our day to day working, in our lives. If we can all accept this reality that we are duty-bound to leave behind a better system than what we had inherited in whichever sphere Lt Gen Srivastava maybe in the army, somebody and some of us are working in the Railways, some of us maybe in the IT sector, each one of us has been doing our role wherever we are. But unless we start with the commitment to be the change that we want to see in the world and become that instrument of change, I think it will be very difficult to really, at least I would not be a satisfied person for whatever time I have spent now in the Railways.

I remember a team of very high officials had come to my office, probably Mr. Goyal or Mr. Aggarwal may have been there in that meeting, I don’t recall now whether you had retired by that time or no. Some very senior officials including some very senior IAS officials who had come and we were having an interaction in the Rail Bhavan conference room and one of the gentlemen who had probably served 35-40 years in government, we have a very big 7-8 minute discourse on all that was wrong in the Railways and compared the railway working with Japanese Railway, with German Railway, with American Railway. This is wrong, this should have been done this way, this should have been done this way and what not have you.

He was right in whatever he said and I took it in the right spirit that we have to aspire to address these problems, meet the challenge of making Railways better. But on a lighter note, since he was in a hurry to leave that meeting and was excusing himself after passing his comments, I asked him to stay back at least to hear my response for two minutes only. Actually, it didn’t even take me two minutes; it took me a few seconds.

I said in all the 40-35-40 years that you were in the government, most of which was spent in the Finance Ministry, I wish you had thought of all of these things and provided the necessary support and ammunition that the Railways always wanted to be able to make this an organisation comparable to the Germans and the Japanese rather than now give us in hindsight this vision.

And that is the difference that Prime Minister Modi brought to the Indian Railways. He fully realises the importance of Indian Railways to India, to India’s economy, to India’s future, the important role it plays in connectivity, in mobility, transporting millions of passengers to work every day, to their hometown for pilgrimages, for tourism, the billion plus tonnes of freight that is moved without which we probably wouldn’t even have had electricity in this room this morning.

And he recognised that the low amounts of funds that used to be made available for the Railways all these years is only making the situation worse and not helping the Railways evolve into a modern  power house, Railways are not able to absorb technology, Railways are not able to connect with the best of class in the world.

And you will be happy to know that as against 2,30,000 crores that was spent on the capex of the Indian Railways in the five years before this government came in, we would have spent 5,30,000 crores between 2014 and ‘19 on upgrading the Indian Railway system, nearly two and a half times in a short period of time.

When we introduced the concept of high-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, clearly, the idea was not just a 500 km stretch; the idea was to introduce the most modern technology into India. The idea was let’s see what we can do, how we can use that technology in India not only to expand these type of modern systems in the Indian Railway network but then also make India the manufacturing hub for these systems, which will make them far more affordable for the rest of the world to adopt.

And when the country is moving through a technological upgradation in almost every field, should the Railways be deprived of what is most modern in the world or should we also engage with modern technology. I think it’s not a million dollar question but it’s a no-brainer. Railways will have to look at the best that is available anywhere in the world and how we can bring it into India.

I remember soon after I had taken charge, there was an unfortunate stampede at the Elphinstone Road station, around 29^th or 30^th of September last year. Of course, it’s not as if the bridge had fallen or there was any reason for that stampede. It was just a sudden thunder shower, people rushing to catch their trains, somebody else rushing to get out of the platform and somebody slipped and when he slipped a lot of people fell behind him and it was a very-very unfortunate accident stampede, causing lot of angst to me and my colleagues and to all of us in the country. And I remember having extensive meetings at the end of that for two days in Mumbai. We sat almost from morning to night without even a break for tea.

And, I think that was the biggest learning experience for me how we have kept the Railways working in an age which is totally disconnected with the 21^st century. Our tendering processes, our use of preventive maintenance, our use of predictive technological interventions to know when things are going wrong, our categorisation of various stations as important or less important.

And a simple thing like categorisation of stations being done purely on the revenue that it collects, and by that logic that Parel station, Elphinstone Road station would have hardly got any revenue because Mumbai suburban would always be largely season ticket driven, which is brought from all over the region, 130 stations everywhere these tickets are bought. So it will never get a priority when it comes to investments, and therefore even safety works were not given any priority in that station.

 

So simple thing like categorising a station based on the footfall that passes through that station and I would believe you would all agree with me that how many passengers use a station is the only defining feature to know whether it’s a systemically important station or not. When we discussed with our colleagues so many ideas came up, so many thoughts evolved then I realised that all the solutions are also available with all of us. It’s only that we are not yet able to sometimes comprehend them or sometimes be willing to challenge ourselves to explore uncharted territory.

I have had a recent success that I would like to share with you, for the last nearly a year I have been trying to propagate the idea of a convoy of freight trains and it has nothing to do with technology, I think it’s simple OR, nothing more than that. That why do freight trains and passenger trains necessarily have to intertwine with each other killing the entire railway system’s speed both for passenger or mail express trains and the freight trains almost leading to freight trains giving you an average of 25 or rather now 23-24 km/h average speed.

Of course, I wasn’t able to get my way for a long time, but only last week on 29^th of September, the SECR tried this convoy concept and the idea was simple that for a defined period of time one behind the other at high speed we just move freight trains almost like a freight Rajdhani or something. And you will be happy to know that they were able to run if I remember correctly nearly 40 trains one after the other, which to my mind will not only help us to expand the freight that we move, reach our freight in time, help us turn around the freight wagons faster and increase the revenues of the Railways so that we don’t have to burden the passengers with more and more increased fares and make the entire system more efficient.

It was hardly much of technology in this but it was simple and skills to plan your timetable so that you can move all these trains one after the other, and I am given to understand that they have got almost 40% more trains, freight trains that day moving on that particular route of 600 km or so. Now, while you are discussing over the next two days technological innovations, I would urge you to look at what technological innovations can make the railways safer, can make the railways more efficient, can help us expand capacity at the least cost, what we can do to get more throughput within the existing system and what role technology can play to make this happen on the ground.

Of course, there are many other which ideas which don’t necessarily have technology in it, which are also welcomed. I mean there are very-very simple interventions which can actually make the Railways have much more throughput and much faster turnaround, which may not involve too much money spending also. It’s more just an application of mind and a willingness to change. But, fortunately for me, I have a team today in the Railways which is willing to engage with that change. I have a team of officers, a team of senior management which is willing to experiment with the unknown, which is willing to say okay, we may go wrong but let’s give it a shot.

And therefore, while one year ago I was also myself working on uncharted territory with the team I did not know so well, today, I feel much more empowered to suggest that we do want you to come up with some radical ideas. We do want all of you to give us some thoughts about what we can do and I assure you that today the Railway Board, today the management of the Railways, the various general managers, the young officers in the Railways are all willing to look at this change, are all willing to experiment, are all willing to fail, because I believe that unless we fail, we will never evolve into a better system.

And, I think gradually we are seeing that change in the thinking of the Railways. I will share another example with you, matter of great satisfaction for me. In my first meeting as Railway Minister either on the 7^th or 9^th of September when both Akhil ji and Mr. Goyal two of my colleagues I can recognise here and if there are some more I am sorry I haven’t seen you were also there, I was assessing safety which was obviously the most paramount subject before me when I took charge and amongst the various causes of accidents was the unmanned level crossings.

By now, most of my colleagues are familiar with my style of working. I took a decision that we have to eliminate all unmanned level crossings in one year आपको याद है न आप तो दोनो थे उस मीटिंग में. I said in one year I want all unmanned level crossings to be eliminated and I think all my colleagues were quite aghast at that idea, it sounded so stupid. And, if I recall correctly, Ganpati had just got over in August, sometime in August last year, and I turned to my colleagues sitting with me and I said when is Ganpati next year. They said 12^th or 13^th September, it was 13^th but I think my guys mixed up they said 12^th September and I put a task that by 12^th September चलो गणेश चतुर्थी पर we should have no unmanned level crossings.

Of course, I was also new, they all thought I was some kid off the block and I got a big note after all the discussions and deliberations in the Railway Board, why it is not a great idea and why it will not be possible to do it. And then they advised that what we can do is and they rightly analysed that the ABC routes which carry most of the important traffic we will be able to do in one year, remove all the unmanned level crossings in one year. I thought to myself चलो अच्छा है at least उस लेवल तक तो पहुँचे कि 80% of the traffic will have no unmanned level crossing but I was not satisfied.

So while approving the Railway Board proposal, I actually wrote a one and a half page and many of you have worked in government so you know those green sheets of paper that come on every file, so I spoke my mind on that file and I wrote in great detail that while I accept your proposal that in one year you assured me that you will complete all the unmanned level crossings, let’s say by 30^th September across the Railways in the ABC routes, the high priority busy routes, but what about the rest? Can we not aim at least and give some timelines by when all the broad gauge and now narrow gauge we don’t have much trains running, so that was not a matter of discussion.

In any case narrow gauge, the trains are very slow they have a man at the front who keeps watching and then driving the train slowly. So, I said I want to make sure you at least have it in your agenda, don’t end your agenda at ABC routes. So, I wrote a whole sheet suggesting that though we must still look at some time frame and how we look up the rest of the… After a few months I think we had a new member engineer who joined, who was willing to take on a challenge. And I am delighted to share with you that from that day till now we have reached a situation where today we have only 474 unmanned level crossings in the entire Indian Railways.

And of these 474, while they have given me a commitment to end it in the next few months, they have assured me that on these also the trains are very sparingly used. These are those which have one train or two trains in a day, which we are running very slowly. I think we have decided to stop night journeys on these routes until we put in manned level crossings. And technical feasibility on one Barmer area I think, 25-26 or 27 UMLCs, technically they were having a problem for which we will find some other human intervention by which we can make it safe for people to drive.

I only wanted to share with you that once the team decides that they want to make a difference, it can be done. By the way, in September alone, the Railways eliminated 1703 UMLCs, September alone, more than they have ever eliminated in the history of Indian Railways, in one month. I just want you to know what is the capability of this 1.3 million force, once they decide that they want to do something. And therefore, when you come up with your technological ideas, I can assure you I have a team today who can actually implement it and make it happen.

And this I just wanted to share with you to give you confidence that this is not just another conference where you are going to deliberate, you are going to discuss, prepare a nice paper or a document and then meet after one year again, probably rehashing the same old story. I assure you every suggestion, every discussion that you come up with, particularly on technological side, also on any other ideas that any of you may like to share with us. We have an open mind. We have a team which is willing to engage with you, to learn from you, to learn from you are experiences, to learn from what is the best in the world and we have a leader in Prime Minister Modi who believes that India should not settle for second best, India should get the best for its people.

We have a leader who is willing to give money, budgetary allocations, unprecedented allocations, so that we can serve our people better, we can create infrastructure of the 21^st century, because if we want to make India truly a superpower, if we are looking at making India a country that engages on equal terms with the rest of the world, if that political empowerment that we see India having today in the comity of nations with Prime Minister Modi standing out tall as a world leader, we certainly need to ensure that we back that political strength or that big image that India has in the world with facilities on the ground where 1.3 billion citizens of India served by 1.3 million railway employees get the best deal that we can offer.

We are working towards a new railway as we move towards a new India by 2022. A railway that is safe, a railway that is modern, a railway that ensures better and higher levels of punctuality, cleanliness, quality catering, engages with technology for preventive maintenance, sees what we can do to expand our network wherever it is critical, wherever there is possibility of more business, wherever there is need looking at demand already there. And I am sure this engagement with your organisation will certainly help us in making the Indian Railways the Railways of tomorrow and bringing the charm back into rail travel – the charm that many of us in our childhood used to enjoy, the charm of going into the hill stations probably in a train.

The charm of travelling in a Rajdhani where tea would be served in that little thermos, if I remember correctly, that brown colour or green colour thermos with delicious toast and cutlet, where we would feel safe travelling in the railways, when we knew that we are going to reach our destination on time, when we knew that service quality will be with a smile. Let’s get that charm back into Indian Railways and let technology drive this effort to bring the charm back into Indian Railways.

All the best to all of you and this conference.

Thank you.

हमारे बीच उपस्थित भारतीय जनता पार्टी उत्तर प्रदेश के जुझारू प्रदेश अध्यक्ष श्री महेंद्र नाथ पांडेय जी, मेरे छोटे भाई और वास्तव में अभी बताया गया कि वह भाजपाई हो गए हैं, मेरा तो मानना है कि वह मिसफिट थे जहाँ थे, अभी अपने सही ठिकाने पर, अपने सही घर पर आये हैं, ऐसे नितिन अग्रवाल जी, मेरे मित्र और राज्य सभा में साथी माननीय श्री अनिल अग्रवाल जी, श्री अमित अग्रवाल जी, पूर्व विधायक; श्री विनोद अग्रवाल जी, मुरादाबाद के हमारे लोकप्रिय मेयर; श्री कपिल देव अग्रवाल जी, मुजफ्फरनगर के विधायक; माननीय श्री महेश गुप्ता जी, बदायूं के विधायक; श्री राजकुमार अग्रवाल जी, संडीला के विधायक; श्री उमेश अग्रवाल जी, श्री राकेश अग्रवाल जी, श्री मुकेश अग्रवाल जी…. वैसे तो मुझे लगता है आज पूरा ही अग्रवाल समाज यहाँ पर उपस्थित हो गया है उत्तर प्रदेश का|

सभी माननीय समाज के वरिष्ठ नेता मंच पर, मंच के नीचे और सभी उपस्थित बहनों, भाईयों महानुभाव, समाज के बहुत ही प्रतिष्ठित उत्तर प्रदेश से आये हुए भाईयों और बहनों| आज वास्तव में ऐतिहासिक दिन है, सर्जिकल स्ट्राइक को आज दो वर्ष पूरे होते हैं| और आज नरेश जी ने बहुत सही दिन चुना और मैं चाहूँगा कि और कुछ बातचीत करने के पहले हम सब खड़े होकर एक बार प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी और हमारे सेना के सभी जवानों को नमन करें, उन सबको बधाई दें|

वास्तव में मैं समझता हूँ भारत के इतिहास में शायद ही कोई ऐसा नेता अभी तक आया है जिसने दो टूक जवाब देकर पाकिस्तान को बताया कि भारत के साथ छेड़खानी कोई कर नहीं सकता, भारत कोई भी चुनौती को सामना करने के लिए तैनात है| और भारत के सवा सौ करोड़ लोग अपनी सरकार के पीछे खड़े हैं, अपने नेतृत्व के साथ खड़े हैं और पूरी तरीके से भारत की अखंडता, भारत की एकता को हम कभी भी ख़राब नहीं होने देंगे, कभी भी उसको दांव पर नहीं चढ़ाने देंगे|

और मैं समझता हूँ भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने जो नारा 1980 में दिया था, और मुझे अभी भी याद है जब 1980 में भाजपा बनी तब नारा था ‘सारे समाज को साथ लिए हमें आगे है बढ़ते जाना’| और मैं समझता हूँ प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने 1980 में जब भाजपा की स्थापना हुई उस समय की जो विचारधारा थी उसको वास्तव में देश और दुनिया के सामने सबका साथ, सबका विकास करके एक प्रकार से देश में एक नया उत्साह, एक नयी उमंग, एक नयी इच्छा शक्ति कि हम एक ईमानदार देश के रूप में विश्व में पहचाने जायें, हम एक अच्छे प्रगतिशील देश के रूप में विश्व में पहचाने जायें|

और इसी को मद्देनज़र रखते हुए गत चार वर्षों में माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी, केंद्र सरकार और भाजपा की सभी सरकारों ने अन्य-अन्य प्रकार से देश की अर्थव्यवस्था को सुधारा है, देश की अर्थव्यवस्था को एक नया रूप दिया है| और मैं समझता हूँ कि कहाँ एक ज़माने में 2013 में भारत को ‘Fragile 5 Economy’ का नाम दिया जाता था, विश्व की जो सबसे कमज़ोर 5 अर्थव्यवस्थाएं हैं उसमें से भारत को माना जाता था|

और आज प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी के नेतृत्व से और आप सबके योगदान से आज भारत विश्व में सबसे तेज़ गति से बढ़ने वाली अर्थव्यवस्था बन गयी है| और मैं आप सबको तहे दिल से धन्यवाद देना चाहूँगा क्योंकि यह असंभव था जब तक पूरा व्यापारी समाज पूरी तरीके से इस नयी व्यवस्था के साथ, इस ईमानदार व्यवस्था के साथ जुड़ने के लिए संकल्प नहीं लेते|

मैं समझता हूँ आज अगर देश में अलग-अलग प्रकार से महाराजा अग्रसेन के सभी लोगों ने जिस प्रकार से इस देश को नया एक रूप दिया है काम करने का, नया तरीका बनाया है काम करने का और जो एक नयी पहचान भारत में व्यापार की बनी है वह आगे चलकर इस देश को बहुत तेज़ गति से विकास के रास्ते पर और आगे बढ़ाएगा|

अभी-अभी बात हो रही थी ब्राह्मण और बनिया की पार्टी और ब्राह्मण और बनिये का गठजोड़, मैं समझता हूँ भारतीय जनता पार्टी आज एक ऐसी पार्टी है जो सारे समाज को जोड़ने में लगी है, चाहे ब्राह्मण हो, चाहे बनिया हो, चाहे क्षत्रिय हो, चाहे ठाकुर हो, चाहे दलित हो, समाज का हर वर्ग भारत का एक बहुत ही इम्पोर्टेन्ट, बहुत ही मेरे ख्याल से एक ऐसा भारत की जो अर्थव्यवस्था, भारत की जो पूरे देश की सामाजिक व्यवस्था है उसमें हर एक व्यक्ति का योगदान इतना अहम है और जब तक हम पूरे देश को एक साथ एक धागे में नहीं पिरोयेंगे तब तक देश प्रगति और उन्नति नहीं कर सकता|

वह ज़माना था जब हमें ब्राह्मण और बनिया की पार्टी कहा जाता था पर तब भारतीय जनता पार्टी का इतना व्यापक रूप कभी नहीं बना| पूरे देश में पूर्ण रूप से बहुमत पाकर लोक सभा में शासन में आना और देश में इतने सारे राज्यों में हमारी सरकार बनना यह तब तक नहीं संभव था जब तक सारे समाज को हम साथ में नहीं लेकर चलेंगे| और मैं समझता हूँ आज जिस प्रकार से पूरे देश में प्रधानमंत्री नरेन्द्र मोदी जी के नेतृत्व की सराहना होती है, जो पूरे देश की युवा शक्ति उनके साथ खड़ी है मुझे पूरा विश्वास है कोई गठबंधन बन जाये, कोई महागठबंधन बन जाये अगला चुनाव भारतीय जनता पार्टी 51% का चुनाव लड़ेगी और हर सीट पर 51% वोट के लिए हम लड़ाई लड़ेंगे, जीत के लाएंगे और इस देश में फिर एक बार 2019 में पूर्ण बहुमत की प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी के नेतृत्व की भाजपा-एनडीए की सरकार फिर एक बार स्थापित करेंगे 2019 में, यह संकल्प आज मावलंकर हॉल में हम सबने लेना है|

वैश्य समाज, जैसा अभी-अभी महेंद्र जी बता रहे थे, वास्तव में माना जाता है एक दानवीरों के समाज के लिए| महाराजा अग्रसेन जी ने जो हमें सीख दी थी जिसमें कोई नया व्यक्ति गाँव आता था तो एक ईंट और एक रुपया समाज उनको देता था| एक ईंट इसलिए कि वह अपना घर बना सकें, एक रुपया इसलिए कि वह अपना व्यापार शुरू कर सकें| और मैं समझता हूँ कि अगर आप गहराई से मोदी जी के सभी कार्यक्रमों को देखेंगे तो प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी महाराजा अग्रसेन जी के दिखाए हुए रास्ते पर आज अपने पूरे देश की व्यवस्थाओं को बना रहे हैं|

हमने संकल्प लिया है कि 2022 जब भारत की आज़ादी के 75 वर्ष पूरे होंगे तब तक भारत में एक भी व्यक्ति ऐसा नहीं रहेगा जिसके सर पर छत न हो, जिसके खुद का मकान न हो| और आप सोचिये आज जिस प्रकार से प्रधानमंत्री आवास योजना में शहरी क्षेत्र में भी और गाँव में भी जो आर्थिक सहायता केंद्र सरकार दे रही है लगभग 20 वर्षों तक जो व्यक्ति 6 लाख रुपये का लोन लेता है, 20 वर्षों तक 6.5% उस लोन का ब्याज भारत सरकार भरेगी ऐसी योजना प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी हम सबके लिए लाये हैं|

फिर कोई बड़ा लोन लेता है 9 लाख का या 12 लाख का उनके लिए भी ब्याज की छूट देकर आज गरीब के लिए, निम्न मध्यम वर्ग के लिए, मध्यम वर्ग के लिए सभी के लिए अपने घर का मकान मालिक बनने का एक रास्ता, एक मार्ग बनाया है प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने उसी तरीके से जैसे महाराजा अग्रसेन जी ने एक ईंट की कल्पना की थी|

और जब पूरे गाँव में एक-एक व्यक्ति एक-एक ईंट देता था और घर बनता था तो वास्तव में एक प्रकार से हम सब व्यापारी समाज जब अपना टैक्स भरते हैं, जब ईमानदार व्यवस्था से जुड़ते हैं चाहे वह जीएसटी हो, चाहे वह इनकम टैक्स हो, जब हम वह टैक्स भरते हैं तो आखिर वही तो हमारा दिया हुआ टैक्स का पैसा है जिससे गरीबों को अपना घर बनाने के लिए प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी आवास योजना के तहत सहायता देते हैं|

तो एक प्रकार से वही महाराजा अग्रसेन की जो सोच थी, जो उनका विचार था उसको प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने ज़मीन पर उतारा और हम सबका दिया हुआ टैक्स समाज के गरीब, समाज के निम्न मध्यम वर्ग को काम आये उसकी कल्पना करते हुए हर व्यक्ति को न सिर्फ घर मिले, घर में अच्छा शौचालय हो, घर में चौबीस घंटे बिजली हो जिसका कनेक्शन मुफ्त में सौभाग्य योजना से भारत सरकार दिलवाएगी, घर में अच्छा पेयजल हो जिसके लिए अन्य-अन्य कार्यक्रम चल रहे हैं, खासतौर पर गंगा की सफाई की योजना माननीय श्री नितिन गडकरी लेकर काम कर रहे हैं|

इसी प्रकार से ग्रामीण सड़कों का जो बड़ा जाल फैलाया है जिससे हर गाँव तक अच्छी सड़क पहुंचे, अच्छे हाईवेज़ बनें देश को जोड़ते हुए, हर गाँव तक इन्टरनेट की फैसिलिटी पहुंचे, दूरदराज़ के इलाकों में हवाई अड्डे की सुविधाएं हो, हवाई जहाज़ पहुंचे| हवाई जहाज़ में सिर्फ अमीर लोग नहीं पर जैसा प्रधानमंत्री जी कहते हैं हवाई चप्पल पहनने वाला सामान्य व्यक्ति भी हवाई जहाज़ में जा सके ऐसी व्यवस्था की|

आयुष्मान भारत के तहत हर गरीब, हर निम्न मध्यम वर्गीय परिवार को 5 लाख रुपये प्रति वर्ष तक का मुफ्त में इलाज देने का जो कार्यक्रम हाल ही में शुरू किया है मैं समझता हूँ विश्व में इतना बड़ा कार्यक्रम आज तक इतिहास में किसी ने नहीं दिया| आखिर इस सबके लिए जो धन जुटाना पड़ता है वह कहाँ से आता है? जैसे महाराजा अग्रसेन जी ने कहा था कि नया व्यक्ति आये तो हम सब गाँव वाले एक-एक रुपया उनको देंगे जिससे वह अपना व्यापार शुरू कर सकें, अपने स्वावलंबी जीवन बिता सकें, अपने पैरों पर खड़ा हो सके वैसे ही माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी ने मुद्रा योजना बनाई और बैंकों को कहा कि आप सामान्य व्यक्ति को, एक छोटे व्यापारी को पैसा देंगे, लोन देंगे, कम ब्याज पर लोन देंगे, उसके टैक्स के रिटर्न देखकर, उसका टर्नओवर देखकर, उसका व्यापार देखकर उसको आर्थिक सहायता देंगे|

और मैं समझता हूँ एक प्रकार से अग्रसेन जी ने जो कल्पना रखी थी वह फिर एक बार जो बड़े लोग बड़े-बड़े लोन लेते थे और कभी वापिस नहीं देते थे बैंकों को उन सबको मजबूर किया गया कि वह बैंक में अपना लोन वापिस दें, बैंक का लोन नहीं वापिस देंगे तो उनकी संपत्ति छीन ली जाएगी उसको बेचकर बैंक में फिर से पैसा आएगा और वह पैसा हम सब व्यापारियों को मिलेगा कि हम एक ईमानदार व्यवस्था से जुड़कर अपना व्यापार कम ब्याज पर पैसा हमें बैंक से मिले और एक अच्छा मुनाफे वाला व्यापार हम कर सकें|

आखिर यही कल्पना थी महाराजा अग्रसेन की जिसपर आज प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी चल रहे हैं| आप याद करिए वह दिन, आप या हम एक छोटा लोन लेते थे बैंक से, कई बार बैंक देने की स्थिति में नहीं रहते थे क्योंकि उन्होंने सब पैसा तो बड़े उद्योगपति और पूंजीवादियों को दे दिया होता था तो हमें साहूकार के पास जाकर महंगा पैसा लेना पड़ता था| और अगर हम अपना छोटा सा लोन नहीं दे पाते थे तो कैसे बैंक वाला हमें आकर परेशान करता था लेकिन जो बड़े पूंजीपति थे जो 10,000/20,000/50,000 करोड़ के लोन लेते थे उनके ऊपर तो कभी बैंकिंग की व्यवस्था ने आज तक प्रहार किया ही नहीं था| उनको तो लगता था अब बैंक का लोन हमारे को मिल गया अब बैंक की जवाबदारी है वह कैसे वापिस लेगा, हमारी कोई जवाबदारी नहीं है वापिस देने की|

मोदी जी ने इस पूरी व्यवस्था को बदला, उन्होंने कहा जो व्यक्ति बैंक में पैसा नहीं देता है बड़े से बड़ा व्यक्ति क्यों न हो उसको भी मजबूर किया जायेगा कि वह बैंक में अपना लोन वापिस लौटाए और मेरे छोटे व्यापारी भाईयों को, छोटे गरीब लोगों को अपने काम के लिए पैसा बैंक कम ब्याज पर दे|

मैं समझता हूँ हमारे समाज की एक सबसे बड़ी जो कमी रही है, हमने कभी इस विषय को, इस बात को अच्छी तरीके से समझने की कोशिश नहीं की कि एक ईमानदार व्यवस्था, एक स्वच्छ अर्थव्यवस्था जब बनती है उसका सबसे बड़ा लाभ अगर किसी को होता है तो वह आपको होता है, हमारे समाज को होता है| हममें से कोई भी, नरेश जी आप जेल और बेल की बात कर रहे थे, मैं समझता हूँ मावलंकर हॉल में आज उपस्थित एक भी व्यक्ति की इच्छा नहीं है कि वह कोई गलत काम करे, कि कोई वह टैक्स की चोरी करे, कोई अपना टैक्स ईमानदारी से नहीं भरे| यहाँ बैठा हुआ, खड़ा हुआ हर एक व्यक्ति ईमानदार बनना चाहता है, ईमानदार रहना चाहता है|

और मेरा तो अनुभव है जब हमने नोटबंदी की, जब जीएसटी लागू किया तब जहाँ-जहाँ पर मैं गया, कई बार नरेश जी और मेरी उम्र के लोग तो शायद थोड़ा परेशान नज़र आते थे, दुखी भी नज़र आते थे| लेकिन जो युवा आते थे, युवा-युवती सबसे ज्यादा उत्साहित होते थे क्योंकि वह नहीं चाहते हैं कि बाप-दादा की तरह दो-दो बहीखाते रखना, एक कच्चा एक पक्का, कभी दुकान पर जाओ तो भरोसा नहीं है कौन टैक्स का अधिकारी आ जायेगा, कौन परेशान करेगा|

मुझे याद है जब मैं फैक्ट्री चलाता था मुंबई में, कभी सुबह फैक्ट्री पहुँचो और गेट के बाहर अगर सफ़ेद एम्बेसडर खड़ी हो तो लगता था मर गए आज घर जायेंगे भी कि नहीं, नहीं पता| और उस पर अगर लिख दिया हो टैक्स के डिपार्टमेंट का वह गोल चक्कर लगाते थे पता नहीं आपको किसी को याद है कि नहीं, एम्बेसडर कार सफ़ेद रंग की पीछे एक गोल चक्कर|

यह सब व्यवस्थाओं को बंद करने के इरादे से प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने एक ईमानदार व्यवस्था को प्रोत्साहन देने के लिए थोड़े कठोर कदम ज़रूर उठाएं हैं लेकिन इस कठोर कदम का सबसे ज्यादा लाभ अगर किसी को मिलेगा तो वह आपको मिलेगा, हमारे छोटे व्यापारी, हमारे छोटे उद्योगों को मिलेगा|

नरेश जी कई बार हमारे लोग 10 दुकानें चला रहे हैं, 10 में से कोई हर एक जना चोरी नहीं करना चाहता, हो सकता है कोई एक या दो व्यक्ति उसमें से टैक्स की चोरी करते हों| अब जब वह 1-2 व्यक्ति टैक्स की चोरी करते थे तो उनका सामान स्वाभाविक है सस्ता हो जाता था, सामान सस्ता होता था तो बाकी 8 क्या करें? या तो दुकान बंद करके गाँव चले जायें, और या वह भी चोरी करना शुरू करें तो तब कम्पटीशन ठीक हो जाएगी दोनों के दाम कम हो जायेंगे| पर यह व्यवस्था चल सकती है क्या और जब तक यह व्यवस्थाएं ऐसी चलेंगी तब तक अधिकारी वर्ग हमारे ऊपर हावी रहेगा|

लेकिन अगर हम सबने तय कर लिया कि हम सिर्फ ईमानदार व्यवस्था को प्रोत्साहन देंगे और पुरानी बातें भूल जायें, वह एक परिस्थिति थी जिसमें कई लोगों को शायद कुछ गलत काम करने भी पड़े हों लेकिन अब समय आ गया है कि हम सब एक ईमानदार व्यवस्था से जुडें| अगर एक-दो लोग कुछ गलत काम करते हैं तो उनको पकडवा दें लेकिन हम सब अपनी ईमानदारी से व्यापार करें जिससे व्यापार इक्वल होगा, सामान्य होगा और हमारा मुनाफा हमारी गुणवत्ता पर होगा, हमारा सामान अच्छा हो, हमारी सेवाएं अच्छी हो उसपर हम मुनाफा करेंगे, टैक्स की चोरी करके मुनाफा किया हुआ कभी फलता नहीं है|

और मैं समझता हूँ जब पूरे देश में यह ईमानदार व्यवस्था जैसे-जैसे फैलेगी और जिसके लिए मैंने जितनी जगह यह बात रखी है मुझे सम्पूर्ण रूप से हमारे समाज ने पूरा आशीर्वाद दिया है, पूरा समर्थन दिया है| मैं समझता हूँ हमारी जो अगली पीढ़ी है, यहाँ जो सब युवा-युवती हैं वह सब धन्यवाद देंगे हम सबका कि हमने उनके लिए एक ईमानदार व्यवस्था छोड़ी इस देश में|

युवा-युवती तो चाहते हैं भाई अपना आराम से सुबह जाओ दुकान पर, फैक्ट्री पर, शाम को घर आओ नहा-धोके पार्टी में जाओ, जैसा नरेश जी कह रहे थे कि रात को बुलाओ भोजन के साथ तो सब लोग पहुँच जाते हैं| रात को अच्छी जमकर पार्टी करो, चैन की नींद सो रात को बिना भयभीत हुए कि कौन आएगा, कौन परेशान करेगा क्योंकि जब हमने गलत काम किया ही नहीं तो कोई हमें परेशान करने की हिम्मत नहीं कर सके|

और ईमानदार लोगों के पीछे प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी और पूरी भारतीय जनता पार्टी खड़ी है और आपको कभी कोई तंग करे जब आपका व्यापार ईमानदार है, जब आपका काम साफ़ सुथरा है तो भारतीय जनता पार्टी और हमारा एक-एक नेता आपके साथ खड़ा है, आपको कोई किसी अधिकारी से डरने की ज़रूरत नहीं है|

यह बड़ा जो बदलाव इस देश में लाया गया है यह सरल नहीं है जैसा पांडेय जी ने कहा, जैसा अनिल जी ने कहा, स्वाभाविक है जो लोगों को इतने वर्षों तक भ्रष्टाचार के ऊपर आधारित अर्थव्यवस्था में लाभ मिला जिन्होंने मुफ्त में कोल की खदानें ली, जिन लोगों को भूमि मिलती थी मुफ्त में और फिर वह अनाप-शनाप तरीके से उसको मुनाफा करते थे व्यक्तिगत रूप में समाज को उसका कोई लाभ नहीं देते थे|

ऐसे सब तत्वों को इस देश की जनता ने ठुकराया है, बार-बार ठुकराया है और 2019 के चुनाव में फिर एक बार बहुत कड़ी हार देगी उत्तर प्रदेश की जनता, उत्तर प्रदेश का हर एक नागरिक ऐसे तत्वों को| और कोई गठबंधन बन जाये, कोई महागठबंधन बने मुझे पूरा विश्वास है समाज का हर अंग भारतीय जनता पार्टी, प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी, और अमित शाह जी, योगी आदित्यनाथ जी के साथ खड़ा रहेगा, उनको फिर एक बार विजयी बनाएगा और एक देश में अच्छा शासन, ईमानदार शासन को प्रोत्साहित करेगा|

हमारे समाज में वैसे हर्षवर्धन जी ने भी बताया, महेंद्र जी भी बता रहे थे, एक दानवीर समाज है अग्रवाल समाज वैश्य समाज, कभी भी जो वंचित रहे, शोषित रहे, पीड़ित रहे उनके प्रति संवेदना रही है हमारे समाज में| और मैं समझता हूँ कि शायद ही कोई इतिहास में मौका रहा हो जब हमारे समाज ने देश भक्ति का परिचय न दिया हो, चाहे वह आज़ादी की लड़ाई हो, चाहे कभी देश के ऊपर किसी प्रकार का प्रहार हुआ हो या आर्थिक समस्या आई हो हमारा समाज सबसे अग्रसर रहा उस चुनौती का सामना करने के लिए|

मैं समझता हूँ इस देश में वह समानता की जो कल्पना से प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने अपना काम शुरू किया है, जो एक राष्ट्रवादी ताकतों को प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी ने बल दिया है, जिस प्रकार से व्यापार ईमानदार बनाने के लिए जो अलग-अलग कदम उठाएं हैं, जो देश की आर्थिक व्यवस्था को तेज़ गति से प्रगति और विकास की तरफ लेकर गए हैं, जिस प्रकार से घाटा कम किया, महंगाई कम की और अर्थव्यवस्था को तेज़ गति दी यह शायद एक सुनहरा मौका है हम सबको, व्यापारियों को कि हम अपने व्यापार को भी इस नए ढांचे में जोडें, नए तरीके से व्यापार करें और विरोधियों की गलत प्रचार में कभी न आयें|

आप सब समझते हैं आज पेट्रोल-डीजल के दाम अगर बढ़े हैं तो अंतर्राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर जो डॉलर की कीमतें जो सुधरी हैं, बढ़ी हैं और क्रूड ऑइल, ऑइल की कीमतें बढ़ी हैं उसका स्वाभाविक है भारत पर भी इम्पैक्ट हुआ है| लेकिन उसके बावजूद जो कुल महंगाई का दर है वह अभी तक 4% से बढ़ा नहीं है, 2013-14 तक डबल डिजिट, 10%, 12% महंगाई के दर हम सबने देखे हैं|

प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी के चार वर्षों में और इस बढ़े हुए पेट्रोल-डीजल दामों के बावजूद महंगाई की दर 4-4.15% से ज्यादा नहीं हुई| एक पूरी तरीके से अर्थव्यवस्था कैसे सुधारना यह काम प्रधानमंत्री जी और उनकी सरकार ने किया| आखिर आज दालों की कीमत देखो तो आधी हो गयी है, अलग-अलग वस्तुओं में देखोगे तो आपको ध्यान में आएगा कि एक पूरी जो हमारी बजट होती है, एक घर का जो पूरा बजट होता है, एक बिज़नेस का जो पूरा बजट होता है उसमें महंगाई को कम किया गया है| स्वाभाविक है कि हमें चिंता है पेट्रोल-डीजल की और स्वाभाविक है कि सरकार भी उसपर पूरी नज़र रख रही है और सही समय पर उसपर जो कार्रवाई उचित होगी वह करेगी|

लेकिन सम्पूर्ण रूप से जब हम देखते हैं तो जो 10-12% महंगाई हमें विरासत में मिली थी हमने चार वर्षों में आज तक उसको पूरी तरीके से नियंत्रण में रखा है, 4-4.15% से आगे बढ़ने नहीं दिया है|

आज अलग-अलग प्रकार से झूट के आधार पर कई सारे गलत समाचार भी निकालने की कोशिश की जा रही है, मैं समझता हूँ यह देश समझदार है, भारत की जनता अच्छी तरह जानती है कि इस देश में कौन ईमानदार है, कौन इस देश को एक ईमानदार व्यवस्था दे रहा है, किसके नेतृत्व में देश सुरक्षित है और मुझे पूरा विश्वास है कि आप सबके आशीर्वाद से, आप सबके प्रयत्नों से, आप सबके उत्साह और उमंग से हमारे समाज एकजुट होकर प्रधानमंत्री मोदी जी, राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष अमित शाह जी, उत्तर प्रदेश के सन्मान्य मुख्यमंत्री महाराज योगी आदित्यनाथ जी, महेंद्र नाथ पांडेय जी, नरेश अग्रवाल जी, अनिल अग्रवाल जी, नितिन अग्रवाल जी, सबके पीछे एकजुट होकर पूरा समाज एक स्वर में काम करेगा, एक साथ काम करेगा और भारतीय जनता पार्टी को 51% से अधिक वोट दिलाकर उत्तर प्रदेश की हर एक सीट में विजय दिलाएगा ऐसे पूरी तरीके से आपके विश्वास को लेकर मैं आज अपनी बात को विराम देता हूँ|

आप सब यहाँ पर इतनी बड़ी संख्या में उत्तर प्रदेश से आये आप सबका बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद| आप सबको बहुत-बहुत शुभकामनाएं|

 

Ladies and gentlemen. At the outset let me congratulate the Indian Railways and the Google Arts and Culture Association for this wonderful initiative, which was proposed by Google sometime back and in a way is a labour of love that colleagues in Google, colleagues in the Indian Railways have collaborated to create over a period of almost 2 years of sheer hard work, research, inquiry and execution.

My congratulations to all the people who have worked on this wonderful project and I do believe it’s a great day today, it kind of coincides with Google completing 20 years yesterday and the World Tourism Day, “International Tourism Day” that was celebrated yesterday and in some sense this partnership of Google and the Railways is also in a way going to promote tourism, particularly at the venue of the function at the Rail Museum in Delhi.

I would also like to congratulate all my four colleagues Mr. Yuvraj Pradhan from Darjeeling, Ms. Wali from the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Mr. Hardev Kumar from the Kalka-Shimla Railway and Mr. Sudershan Kumar from the Kangra Valley Railway for their effort and all the work that they have put in towards making the Indian Railways once again a charming experience for all our passengers, for all the stakeholders and everybody associated with the Indian Railways.

In fact, it is often said that civilization is built over a millennia by countless generations, each generation leaving its footprints in the sands of time. A culture must preserve these footprints to remember what it was and where it came from. And the Indian Railways being a 165-year old organisation truly has a lot of material which we need to preserve, which we should leave behind for posterity.

Whenever we are trying to look at the evolution of the transport system in India all of these artifacts, all of these rich traditions, culture, heritage, history will play an important role for the inquisitive research for the next generation to understand what behind, what for so many years and how the Indian Railways has evolved.

In fact, Mark Twain had once said, “Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India”. And in some sense, the Indian Railways also has within a lot of treasure moments, which the world will someday be looking up to to see how different technologies, how different generations of people evolved over the years, over decades, over centuries.

In fact, Mumbai has a very special place in the Railways having been the first railway line set up in India. It was be back on 16th of April, 1853 that the first train started running between Bori Bunder and Thane. Today, I am somewhere in between these two situations at Bombay Central and to see the digitisation programme being launched in the national capital from my home city of Mumbai is truly a matter of happiness and pride for me and my colleagues in Mumbai.

I believe we will be setting up 22 digital screens all across the Indian railway system at different locations in India showcasing this project. Of course, I would like you to also consider bringing in the three-dimensional aspect, so that it becomes more charming, more enjoyable. I think just video walls may not attract as much traction in this day and age of films and in this day and age of television.

Probably, the three-dimensional effect and living that experience in some form or the other, maybe people sitting in a train compartment with their goggles or with the equipment on literally visually experiencing what the Darjeeling track is like, what the Shimla journey is like or what the journey now in Kashmir is like, maybe a more interesting experience which I hope will be the next steps where this project will take us forward.

In fact, the need to preserve over heritage has been felt even more after the National Museum of Brazil had a severe fire very recently. It was a 200-year old museum and that fire destroyed a lot of the history and culture and heritage that was preserved at that museum in Brazil. Of course, now they are trying to digitally recreate many of those artifacts, but 200-year old museum and many century-old history got lost within a matter of hours. So, digitalisation truly opens up the opportunity to preserve a lot of that history and culture, at least in digital form, which I hope will outlive many of us and will certainly get safeguarded in the event of natural disasters or any acts of God, which would otherwise lose a lot of value for the Indian Railways.

Of course, this partnership between Google and the Indian Railways has also got the dimension of the Wi-Fi, which we have proliferated all across the country. I believe Google and the Railways have done over 400 stations together, truly demonstrating how powerful a collaboration can be and how it can be used to serve the people of India. I am given to understand that the Wi-Fi available at these stations and the 300 more that the Indian Railways and RailTel have set up totaling to about 711 stations now. These 711 stations today have faster Wi-Fi access than any other place in the country or any other system in the country.

I am not being boastful about it but I would like to take the opportunity to compliment both Google and the Indian Railway teams and the RailTel team who have actually made this happen. I believe we have had some wonderful results out of this. A child of a coolie possibly got admission or was successful in a UPSC examination studying out of the Wi-Fi that was available at the railway station.

I was in Raipur only last week or earlier this week, and when I visited the station late evening the local public representatives, the Ministers and MLAs accompanying me were mentioning that late night when possibly the passenger footfall is not much, not too many passengers at the station, you find loads of people coming to the railway station, particularly the youth, young boys and girls, to use the Wi-Fi and to enjoy the service that is being provided at Raipur railway station.

I believe it portends very well for the future and in some sense confirms my desire that we should take the Wi-Fi to over 6000 stations across the Indian network, so that local people in the vicinity of those stations, particularly the poor, particularly the marginalised sections of society, who otherwise may not be able to get such kind of high-speed broadband Internet access, who may otherwise not be able to afford the commercially available internet facilities, but would be able to actually come down to their nearest station and use the Wi-Fi at the nearest station to expand their knowledge and explore the horizons of technology, explore what’s happening in the world, familiarize themselves and train themselves to become connected, to enjoy the fruits of technology and development, and possibly become better citizens of this country.

And therefore, I would like to thank my team which has worked to make this 710 stations happen, thank Google for their partnership and I believe we have already offered another 5000 odd stations for public-private partnership through a website and that website is called railsahyog.com. On the railsahyog.com, we have invited partnerships similar to the one we had for the first 400 stations, invited people to come and make their offers and pick up these stations, so that they could actually expand this Wi-Fi system and proliferate it through the Indian Railways. Maybe Google also may like to make some offer, Anandan, and expand our partnership with you so that we can take up more stations.

Albeit, I wish we should do it fast because every day lost is a day lost in the life of one of my brothers or sisters or a child in a village, who is getting deprived of this kind of facility. So, for me, every day matters and I would personally wish and desire that my teams work to make this project a success in the next 120 days, so that we can have Wi-Fi across the Indian Railways in the next 120 days in the spirit of partnership with which we have made the first 400 stations successful with Google. We are working I think with Power Grid for another hundred stations and I am sure going forward we can rapidly wrap this up based on our experience of the first 700 stations.

I was seeing some of the presentations that Mr. Sood was making, and truly I think the Indian Railways brings with it a lot of charming experiences that the generation today, the youth of today have no clue about. And I must compliment Mr. Sood for his research, for all the effort that he and his team have put in because all these are really are, as they say in Hindi our “दरोहर”. It’s a very valuable treasure, valuable heritage that the Railways is caring forward.

I am given to understand that this particular project would probably one of the largest cultural heritage digitisation project in India, or possibly even in the whole of Asia Pacific. And therefore, I must say it’s really a very-very valuable contribution that your team has given us. I believe you have 3000-plus digital assets now, a 150-plus virtual reality experiences and 75-plus online stories already available under this project.

I compliment you and I would urge you to expand this because given the 165-year history I think these numbers would probably expand and ramp up rapidly, which would make it the world’s largest experience. And any support that you require from the Railways, I assure you the 1.3 million person team working for the Indian Railways will all support you in whichever and whatever way we can to make this the world’s largest digitisation programme to preserve the culture of the Indian Railways.

And towards that end I think also ramping it up to other locations across the country, I was a little sad to see Mumbai is not included, my own home city is not included in the list of 22 and I would urge the teams to please expand this list to cover all the zones. Many zones are left out so we have nine zones. I wish the balance eight zones also pick up some places and my home city of Mumbai should certainly be included in this digitisation programme also, particularly since the whole railway story started from here.

I am told that seven stations in Central Railway and five in Western Railway have gone in for digitization. Now, let’s merge all these various efforts so that what you have done can be also clubbed with what is being planned in the national effort and what they have done can also be available to you and all of you work together in the team spirit to make this three-dimensional and I don’t know at some later stage four-dimensional. Why can we not even plan a four dimensional digital experience for the people of India.

So from the Nilgiri mountains to the CSMT station, let’s help the people of India relive their childhood, relive their childhood of the train journey to Matheran or a journey at the Darjeeling toy train. Let’s show them the breathtaking Kangra Valley. Let’s make sure the Kalka-Shimla experience can be enjoyed by somebody in Erode or in Coimbatore. Let’s give the people of India, the 1.3 billion people of India an experience of what the 1.3 million Railway employees are doing for the people, for serving the people of India.

So, this will be the gift from 1.3 million railway team, railway employees to the 1.3 billion citizens of India. My best wishes to your programme. I am sure it will give a big boost to tourism. It will encourage the railway men working, railway men and woman, working to serve our passengers, it will encourage their efforts, and at the same time it will encourage and it will change the view that the people of India have towards the Indian Railways. They will be more sensitive to the hard work, to the efforts that my team of 1.3 million is putting in to serve the country and, collectively, this will also show how public-private partnerships can truly survive, can truly serve and can truly empower the people of India.

Thank you Chairman Railway Board, thank you Anandan and the team from Google and thank you my team in the Indian Railways for making this project happen.

Congratulations.