Media is called the Fourth Estate after the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Nearly 100 countries got Independence since 1945. India is the only large country which has remained democratic and in the last 68 years, 16 General Elections for the Parliament and hundreds of State Assembly elections have been conducted, and judged as free and fair.
Indian media, especially print media, has also played a pivotal role in the development and nurturing of democratic norms. But some times some misleading reports do creep in, for example, a well-known Gujarati daily carried a report “PM Modi's Wembley Show was full of lies: Congress” which was published on 14th November.
Mr Nishit Vyas, Secretary General and Spokesperson of Gujarat Congress, has claimed that Congress national leader Ahmed Patel and the then Central Minister Dinsha Patel proposed direct flight between London and Ahmedabad which was started by UPA Government and was stopped in 2009 because of heavy losses.
Both statements are utter lies.
In the same report, the Congress is reported to have alleged that thousands of supporters were bought to cheer Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Wembley Stadium. Also, it claims that £100 million was spent to provide food, transportation and other such expenses. It is alleged in the report that the audience at the historic meeting was a rented crowd.
Well, the facts are totally different.
Europe India Forum had organised the event. The cost of this extensive venue comes to around £700,000. Other expenses like setting up the stage, administrative expenses and security apparatus are additional. As I understand, the total cost was £2 million which was entirely raised from Indian entrepreneurs without any contribution from British or Indian governments.
Such reports based on complete untruth illustrate the nadir of Gujarat Congress which has lost power in the State of Gujarat since 1990. To regain the trust and confidence of the electorate, the party has to first put its house in order and refrain from making such wild accusations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
On the direct flight, let me elaborate more. When Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited the United Kingdom in 2003, I myself with the help of Manoj Ladwa and a few others made a very detailed and well-researched presentation to the CM on the need for a direct flight between London and Ahmedabad.
Gujarat was developing rapidly, and about 700,000 British Indians of Gujarati origin as well as increasing number of businessmen and others needed a direct connection between the two cities – not only the passengers to and from Gujarat but also from western Madhya Pradesh and southern Rajasthan.
After consulting over 20 major travel agents, we had prepared some statistics of the traffic flow. Indian High Commission was issuing some 7,000 visas per week to visit India. From our study it was revealed that some 3,000 passengers travel between the UK and Gujarat per week. Lack of direct flight means passengers had to change the plane at Mumbai or Delhi (if they travel by Air India) or at Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Qatar, amongst others, in the Gulf. Pregnant women, elderly persons, passengers with disabilities and especially women with young children, had to face severe hardships to disembark, then embark from one aircraft to another with all hand luggage and some times all luggage, wait in the lounge for 2 or 3 or more hours and, above all, most of the flights were in the middle of the night.
CM Narendra Modi understood the problems and on his return presented this case to the PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and to the Civil Aviation minister. Very promptly a direct flight was started with one flight per week and the frequency increased to four flights per week.
When the UPA Government came to power, all of a sudden without any consultation or advance notice, the direct flight service was stopped. We also came to gather that some private airlines were given two or more slots as a result of the discontinuation of the Air India flights.
Again, we presented our case to Praful Patel, the then civil aviation minister in the UPA Government, with a petition signed by over 20,000 people, but to no avail.
A committee called “All Party Committee for Direct Flight, UK, was formed to look into the matter. A similar committee was formed in India.
Praful Patel had promised on 4th July 2010 during the inauguration of Terminal 2 of Ahmedabad International Airport that the flight service will restart during the winter.
But it turned out to be a false promise.
Congress cannot take credit on the matter. As a matter of fact, the Congress-led UPA Government stopped the flights, which put passengers to lot of inconvenience, damaged the finances of Air India and made other airlines more prosperous and popular.
Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13th November at Wembley Stadium announced the resumption of the direct flight between Ahmedabad and London. The service will take off from December 15.
I am happy that the new direct flight will have a stopover at Mumbai to and from London and Ahmedabad. This will solve the problem of the crew and their working hours as well as bring additional traffic between London and Mumbai, and between Mumbai and Ahmedabad for those who are not flying out of the country.
I had met the Air India bosses at Mumbai and Birmingham airports and presented them with this schedule which is practical and acceptable.
Sadly, an English language daily in India on November 18 carried a report “Air India may not be able to start direct Ahmedabad-London flight from December 15”, which is misleading.
This information is confusing passengers and damaging the interest of Air India and India as well.
I have also conveyed to the authorities that Air India should not charge £50 or any extra sum from passengers for the direct flight as was done previously. Such extra charges would discourage them to take the direct flight, or else they will be forced to prefer the hardships of the transit in order to save money.
Some Middle East airlines could cut the price further which attracted the cost-conscious passengers. The duty-free airports in the Gulf can also be more attractive for passengers who wish to shop.
There is one more issue to remember for India that not only to provide a level-playing field but will also give bumper publicity to make people in the UK aware as has been done on 14th November in some Gujarati media in Gujarat.
For most of the British Indians, Air India is a national airline and the symbol of Maharaja has its own pride and appeal. With the advantage of Indian cuisine, dietary satisfaction and language of the crew, this direct flight can over a period become viable as well as help in Indo-British cooperation and relations.
Why Her Majesty The Queen greeted PM Modi without gloves?
Maybe Prime Minister Narendra Modi – a teetotaller, a non-smoker and total vegetarian, committed to yoga, health and discipline, able to work relentlessly and remaining focused in spite of several challenges – is so harmless that her Majesty did not wear gloves. So shaking hands with somebody so healthy and energetic could be very stimulating.
- CB
