Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Surface Transport, Highways, and Shipping, on the strengths of the current Central government, future challenges and promises, and his plans for Indian roads and rivers
Union Minister for Surface Transport, Highways, and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, has an easy smile — and one which he flashes often. It hovers near his lips as he listens to my question, turns into laughter when he shares a joke, and becomes a tad sarcastic when we discuss the pitfalls of power. The smile vanishes when we discuss the Union minister’s name featuring in the CAG report regarding violation of norms for loan given to Purti Sahkar Karkhana Ltd, a company of which he is a promoter. And then it comes back as a confident smirk as we discuss his comments on using human urine as a fertiliser.
That is another thing that strikes you about Gadkari – his confidence. Born in a middle-class agrarian family in Nagpur, Gadkari has risen to power slowly, but surely, and his confidence and tenacity of efforts have played a crucial role. The 57-year-old Maharashtra politician became a national-level leader when he took over as BJP president from heavyweight Rajnath Singh in 2009. As the youngest president of the party, Gadkari proved his prowess as a keen negotiator, peacemaker and strategist. “I don’t work as if I am making a political career. I work for the poor and downtrodden sections of society who don’t have food to eat, house to live in, or clothes to wear. I strive to bring about a transformation in their lives,” said Gadkari, when he was made the party president.
When he was the party president in Maharashtra, Gadkari played a lead role in getting the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition to win 42 out of 48 seats, including all 10 seats from the Vidarbha region, a first for the BJP since Independence. Last year was the icing on the cake, however, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Nagpur in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. A Congress stronghold for several years, Gadkari defeated seven-time winner Vilas Muthemwar by about three lakh votes!
Gadkari’s commitment to his ministry can’t be denied either. With nearly five million km, India has the second-largest network of roads in the world, and there’s a lot of ground the minister needs to cover when it comes to surface transport. “Since 1947, the Congress invested in steel factories and power projects, but never allocated any funds towards development of roads,” he says adding, “Prosperity comes from roads and in India, and Vajpayee was the only prime minister who thought in that direction.”
Gadkari also recounts how, as the minister in Maharashtra, he was told to conceive of a plan to connect all Indian cities by road, after which he got the chance to work on the four-lane national highway network under the Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana. He wants to give the credit to former Prime Minister Vajpayee for connecting 1,70,000 villages out of 6,50,000 by road. “You will also see such a massive change and development in this sector in the coming five years under Modi ji that you might not have seen in the past 50 years. I can assure you we will make the Indian roads network strong,” he commits.
At present, the minister’s aim is to lay 30 km of road daily from the current 14 km; under the UPA, it was just two km of roads a day. The project comes at a cost, however, and the budget is pegged at a whopping Rs 42,000 crore. The government is looking at Rs 60,000-70,000 crore through tax exemption bonds, and 8,000 crore from tolls. “We are also looking at Rs 100,000 crore from the 5,000 km of EPC roads, on which toll tax is charged,” adding how the government is also considering foreign and domestic insurance and pension funds for this.
Gadkari wants surface transport to extend beyond roads and onto waterways. “The government is considering it,” he says, talking about how the Parliament has accorded permission for waterways on the Ganga, Mahanadi and Brahmaputra. “We have started work on the Ganga project from Varanasi in UP, to Haldia in West Bengal, which will also cover Sahebganj in Jharkhand,” he says. It is also worth mentioning here that Haldia is being developed into a hub where railways, waterways and roadways will converge. At present, the ministry has hired consultants for analysing the potential for 65 rivers as waterways.
The Union minister fields questions about not only his ministry, but the government as well. In fact, Gadkari’s excellent communication skills and candid way of putting things makes him a joy to interact with. Inspired by great orators and speakers such as those from the RSS, Gadkari also considers his mother as a big influence in his life, since she inculcated the spirit of social work in him.
Not only has he adopted 500 farmer families in his constituency, he also runs 650 schools in the district without any aid from the government, and has established four hospitals, where more than 6,000 heart surgeries have been performed. “I am working with the farmers of my area and want to increase the employment opportunities there,” says Gadkari, adding, “I am not an industrialist, but have provided employment opportunities to 15,000 people. I work as a social entrepreneur to eradicate unemployment from my constituency.”
Talking about fielding questions on the Central government, Gadkari defends the promise of acchey din. “The country has given 60 years to the Congress and all that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is asking of the people is to give him 60 months,” he says. Gadkari takes pains to explain how a year before the BJP came to power, India’s GDP was a dismal 4.25 per cent, which has now jumped to 7.5 per cent. “The country is now on a path of development; industries that were closed down are now being revived. Coal mines have reopened, we are laying kms of new roads every days, and ‘Atal Pension Yojana’ has meant the opening of 15 crore bank accounts,” he shares.
The Central government is still under the fire, though; while some call it pro-coporate, the industry is ironically expressing its disappointment with the current government. The proposed Land Acquisition Bill, for instance, is being looked upon as favouring the capitalists. Gadkari says nothing could be further from the truth. “We are not going to acquire even an inch of land for any private educational institutions. There are important conditions under which land can be acquired under the bill,” he says. These conditions include rural infrastructure such as irrigation, village roads, drinking water and storage tanks, transformers, village government schools, and hospitals. Gadkari also says 80 per cent of the land is acquired only for irrigation purposes. “Is it not necessary to provide water to farmers so that they earn their livelihood and stop committing suicide?” he shoots back, adding how the dams will also help in water conservation as well as power production.
“We need ethics, economy, ecology, and environment. We want development, a good environment, pollution-free India and financial policies that strengthen the Indian farmer,” he says, lamenting the fact that only 1 per cent of India’s population can afford to buy a house that costs more than Rs 10 lakh.
Gadkari repeats the prime minister’s promise of ensuring 99 per cent people having houses by 2022. “But for that we need land. We need land to build airports for the arms as well as storehouses for our missiles,” he says. Amidst all this progress and development, Gadkari emphasises his government’s commitment to the Antyodaya scheme, which means serving the last man in the queue, and reaching out to the most marginalised sections of society. “For us, this last man in the queue is our focal point and we are striving for his socioeconomic development,” he says, adding, “We want to create employment opportunities and also make it possible to pay the farmer what he deserves for his crop.”
Gadkari is also a strong advocate against migration and is championing the cause of industrial corridors, so that industries can expand beyond congested metro cities and their suburbs. For instance, the plan to have readymade garment factories close to villages that have cotton plantations, juice factories near mango orchards, and process potato wafers near where potatoes are cultivated. “Village youth will get employment in their villages. Is it necessary for them to migrate to Delhi, stay in slums, and earn a living by pulling cycle rickshaws and e-rickshaws?” he retorts. Spoken from the heart.