PHOTOGRAPHY: MOHD NASIR
Conjunctivitis or eye flu and scandal have one thing in common. No matter how much you try to hide it, people get to know about it. The moment you have eye flu, people tend to wear dark glasses. That’s the time when everyone starts asking, “All well?” Inevitably you tell them, “I am recovering from eye flu”. People then tend to distance themselves from you, lest they catch the contagious disease. But the best part is that the eye flu goes away in a couple of days, thanks to modern eye medicine.
But with a scandal, it’s different. Even if you are neck deep in a scandal, and accusations come flying thick and fast, nothing happens to you. Nobody distances himself or herself from the person involved in a scandal. And more so, if you are a Minister. That perhaps seems to be the case with Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India. Ever since he became a Minister, he has been extremely popular with his efforts to develop our economy.
Every highway that has been made in the country in the last several years, owes its success (or failure) to Gadkari. As an automotive journalist, I have always avoided covering events where politicians are present. That meant, I never attended any meeting of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), or the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) or the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) because they always called politicians to grace their meetings.
Now coming back to Gadkari, initially he seemed too good to be true. He definitely sounded extremely progressive and sensible. I kind of adored him, when I read about him in the news. Miles and miles of highways appeared all over the country and I was super impressed. From a cab driver to an ordinary man, everybody was impressed. “Wah, kya sadak hai,” we all would gasp.
Please remember, we are living in a digital era and everything we post, everything we say in any public forum, or anything we record with a microphone or a camera stays in the large horizon that goes by the name of surface web. Through social media sites and digital platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Reditt, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, assisted by search engines like Chrome, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, etc one can retrieve any news that is buried under tonnes and tonnes of data, all this in a mere few seconds.
But our digital world is like heaven and hell, at different times. All the accolades began to disappear when rains pounded our country. Highways crumbled and hill side highways got swept away in landslides. Then there was this issue regarding ethanol based fuel. Old quotes of Gadkari appeared on various social media sites telling the public that it’s time we went for ethanol mixed fuel for vehicles. This, he said would lift the burden of the massive foreign exchange we spend importing crude oil from abroad. He had once stated that petrol prices would drop to Rs 15 per litre (from Rs 100 plus currently), with 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol.
India started rolling out E10 petrol (a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% petrol) in 2022 and a year later, the government launched E 20 petrol. A country wide roll out of E 20 fuel continues. Despite E 20 petrol, the price of petrol did not come down; rather the use of E20 resulted in a dip in mileage of vehicles and some engine and fuel system parts betting corroded, because ethanol has a lower energy density as well has hygroscopic (water absorbing) nature and solvent properties. Ethanol’s solvent properties can degrade rubber and plastic components like sales and hoses.
On the one hand, while highways started developing craters and large pot holes, on the other, reports of an ethanol linked business detail started emerging. First, it was reported that two leading ethanol companies are run by Gadkari’s sons and that a company owned by Gadkari’s son, CIAN Agro, grew rapidly with the ethanol blending boom with revenues jumping from Rs 17 crore to Rs 510 crore in just one year. Rather than explaining the conflict of interests here, the Minister said a paid and politically motivated social media campaign is being run against him to target him. In an event in Nagpur very recently, he said his “brain is worth Rs 200 crore per month” and that he has no shortage of money.
Gadkari’s statements have disappointed me. But how can SIAM or ACMA or FADA even question him? He is the “big shot” Minister and it’s important that they keep him in good humour. Moreover, leading auto journalists in India are mum about the incident. That is expected of them. They continue to hobnob with him. After all, it’s called power game. But YouTube and Instagram are flooded with brave hearts questioning Gadkari’s so called “clean image”. And for all those who have had the courage to question Gadkari’s ethanol adventure, let me raise a toast for them.
As for the drop in mileage because of E20 ethanol mixed petrol and the reported corrosion to engine parts, nobody is really bothered. You can blame our potholed roads for this or the weather. As for me, I am happy I have never attended a single event as a journalist where Gadkari has been the chief guest. With this new development, I am glad I never did!