Picto Diary - 11 April 2024 - On to Ahmedabad by Sabarmate Vande Bharat train
Above: Narendra Modi, Prime Minister India. Jodhpur, India. 11 April 2024.
Images of Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, are ubiquitous here in Jodhpur, and elsewhere, during our April 2024 travels to India. India's eighteenth national election is set for 01 June 2024 and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi's party, is expected to remain dominant with Modi entering his third term as Prime Minister. Modi has been in office for ten years and has a current popularity rating in the polls of 75%.
Modi's support is greater in north India, where the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is dominant, than in Southern India, where various other parties, including the Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (M) hold sway.
Modi has succeeded in entering India's popular consciousness as few other Prime Ministers have done, save perhaps, Indira Gandhi. One pundit has referred to Modi as a combination of "king, high priest, and Mr. Rogers." Modi is beyond politics. On social media he has inserted himself into people's lives almost as a family member.
As can be imagined when a politician gains so much power, Modi has pushed India into a form of electoral autocracy. As he uses the power of government to harass his political enemies, Joe Biden looks like a piker compared to Modi. In February, the BJP's principal opposition party, Congress Party, had its bank accounts closed with the BJP controlled Indian government demanding immediate payment of overdue tax payments. The accounts have since been reopened. In March, Delhi's Chief Minister, Congress Party member, was held for six days on corruption charges. He has since been released. These two actions received a frosty response from the high and mighty United States, which is rich considering FBI intimidation of mom's challenging left leaning school boards, FBI infiltration of Catholic churches and lawfare strong arm tactics used to slow down Republican Donald Trump's 2024 campaign for the presidency. The BJP has also cracked down on a testy Indian media. This is opposite to the US where the media seems to be a lap dog for the ruling Democrats.
If there is a perception by Republicans that US elections may be free, but not fair, so the accusation is made of Indian presidential elections. The BJP, benefiting from large campaign donations, makes grist of other Indian political parties, always coming up with something to keep them on the defensive. One pundit, Andy Mukerjee, based in Hong Kong, says India's electoral process is "on the slippery slope to becoming a closed electoral autocracy." There is no clash of ideas happening in India today as the BJP has been successful in keeping other parties on the run with legal battles and corruption accusations.
While the BJP party is a hotbed of Hindu supremacy, Modi himself is usually quiet on this topic. However, he can stir the coals of secular conflict when he wants to, particularly as he considers his strong electoral position. In January he attended the opening ceremony of the newly constricted Ayoda Hindu temple which had, notoriously, been constructed on the site of a mosque destroyed by Hindu militants in 1992. Modi's visit to the temple did not sit well with India's Muslim community, 15% of India's population.
Modi also doesn't see the need to stoke his BJP, Hindu nationalist leaning base. He's confident that his core supporters will be with him. Modi concentrates on winning alliances with other factions of the Indian cultural matrix. Modi is good at being all things to all people. India is made up of a complex matrix of class, caste, language and religion. A clever leader can appeal the oft conflicting needs of all factions where in such a large, populous country it is hard for, say, Sikhs, in Punjab to keep track of Modi's promises to communists in faraway Kerala.
As India powers forward with a sustainable 5% GDP growth rate, the people seem oblivious to Modi's political machinations. Modi's is a powerful formula. Delegitimize the media. Starve opposition parties of funding and open investigations on them. And, promise, to all India's caste, class, religious, and language factions, the world,
Modi now owns all the issues: economy, national security, climate, jobs and corruption. The wind seems to be at his back, but at what cost as India's democracy seems to be slipping away.
Above: Jodhpur Train Station. Sabarmati Vande Bharat train, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. 11 April 2024.
On to Ahmedabad sans TIMDT's brood who are returning home via Delhi. Sabarmati Vande Bharat. Top speed 180 kph. Not bullet train, but fastest train on which we've traveled to date in India. Indian train stations always fascinating as they contain a microcosm of the country's population: all classes, all castes, and all religions.
India's first bullet train, indigenously developed, linking Mumbai with Ahmedabad, is set for completion 2027.
Above: Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India. 11 April 2024.
Sunrise over the Thar Desert at 90 mph on the Sabarmati Vande Bharat train.
Above: Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Ahmedabad Train station. 11 April 2024.
Porter balances two of our bags, 70 pounds total, on his head.
Above: Indian Institute of Management (IIMA), Ahmedabad, India. 11 April 2024.
Long called India's Harvard Business School. Considering the rot eating away at America's "elite" institutions, IIMA may want to drop the comparison.
Above: Ahmedabad, Gujarat. 11 April 2024. Image from hotel window. ITC Narmada Hotel. 21st floor.
Since last making an extended visit to India in 2019, I vowed that my next Indian visit would include Ahmedabad and surrounding areas in the state of Gujarat. TIMDT was less enthusiastic about my desire to visit Ahmedabad, but cooperated, particularly in view of my willingness to earlier in the trip to cover a lot of old ground while accompanying Koessler and his family around the golden triangle. Gujarat is the birthplace of key post 1947 independence Indian luminaries... Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel, and current PM, Narendra Modi. Modi is Prime Minister today after, while Governor of Gujarat, instituting economic reforms that made Gujarat a model for other states to follow. Ahmedabad is also on Time Magazines 2022 list of World's Greatest Places. Ahmedabad, India: World's Greatest Places 2022 | TIME
Ahmedabad, six million population, is India's first UNESCO World Heritage City. It is the home of India's top business school, indeed, high on the list of world class business schools, Indian Institute of Management. The thirty-six-acre Gandhi ashram sits peacefully beside the Sabarmati River. It was from Gandhi's Ahmedabad ashram that he, Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and others laid the groundwork for the movement to attain Indian independence from the Raj in 1947. Ahmedabad is the site of new world class hotels, including the ITC Narmada Hotel, where TIMDT and Mwah (sic) are staying. Gujarat is also the home of most of India's famous stepwells and of the largest statue in the world, The Statue of Unity, in the image of Indian patriot, Vallabhbhai Patel.
We plan to stay five nights in Gujarat and seeing as much as we can see of a state that has emerged as an economic powerhouse... a model for other states to emulate. We certainly don't want to miss the 10th century stepwells which are the functional equivalent of the caravan serai found along the Silk Road not terribly far to the north.
Addendum
Thanks for sharing this trip. What a great way to learn.
Hippo and Survival,
Hatch, UT
Beautiful! Thanks, Steve, for sharing.
Apple Store,
Salt Lake City, UT
Such an interesting travelogue, I forwarded to others in my family sure to enjoy.
Tony,
Park City, UT
Steve,
Consider: The $100 Bill Is America’s Most Common Currency, and It's Most Annoying. The amount in circulation has more than doubled in recent years, but $100s are hated by both cashiers and economists. Drug dealers and black market traders love it.
Enjoying my trip through India through your photos.
In your chart below, with Indian-Americans in the lead, it would be helpful to see the types of degrees held. While some of them are restaurant owners, many more are engineers, bankers, and doctors.
Dick
By Oyin Adedoyin - Reporter at The Wall Street Journal:
Feb. 24, 2024, 9:00 pm ET
Rayza Sison went to a flea market in New York this month with five $100 bills. One by one, vendors refused to take her money, saying they couldn’t make changes or accepted only digital payments through Venmo or Zelle.
Determined to break the bills, the 26-year-old senior program coordinator tried using them at coffee shops and then her local fruit stand. She was refused again. The bills are still in her wallet.
“I had hoped cash would be more convenient, particularly at a flea market,” Sison said.
The $100 bill is far and away the most common U.S. paper currency, dwarfing even the $1 bill. The number of bills bearing Benjamin Franklin’s mug more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, faster growth than any other denomination, according to the most recent Federal Reserve data. The $100 Bill Is America’s Most Common Currency, and Its Most Annoying