Why Shivraj Singh Chouhan is convinced Madhya Pradesh's roads are better than America's
Shivraj Singh is in the US to attract investments to Madhya Pradesh.
In the US to attract investments for Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said in a meeting that roads in his state are better than those in the US. No, he was not joking, though even the people behind him on the stage looked unconvinced.
To offer some perspective, Madhya Pradesh reported the maximum number of road accidents (3,070) due to potholes in 2015, according to a reply by the Ministry of State for Road Transport and Highways to the Parliament in March this year.
In August this year, the Aam Aadmi Party had launched a protest against bad roads in Bhopal, by planting saplings in potholes and naming them after BJP politicians. According to a Times of India report, bad roads have cost Khajuraho, one of the most recognised tourist destinations in India worldwide, 32 per cent of its visitors' footfall in the past four years.
Even actor Rishi Kapoor, in February this year, had slammed the condition of MP's roads and asked Chouhan to do something about it.
Twitter has taken it upon itself to show that the CM's claim had more holes in it than the worst of MP's roads, and netizens have been sharing pictures of US's roads with creative captions.
CM says #MPRoads better than #US roads. #BJP's new #RahulGandhi foundKids- #RaGaAdults- #ArunJhootliLegends- #shivrajsinghchouhan be like pic.twitter.com/WBZFnxhvR6
— Siddharth Mehta (@sidmehta_6993) October 24, 2017
Mama @ChouhanShivraj is right. MP roads are better than USA. Compare the condition of road in New York (Pic 1) to a slum in Bhopal (Pic 2) pic.twitter.com/gpGXQZmTi8
— The Skin Doctor (@thecyberbully13) October 24, 2017
Indore-Bhopal underground Highway. #MPRoads pic.twitter.com/ULP5FkpiG7
— SAGAR (@sagarcasm) October 24, 2017
Aerial view of Dinadayal Chowk, Bhopal. #MPRoads pic.twitter.com/wcZGjnywWV
— વિકાસ ગાંડો થયો છે (@skull_baba) October 24, 2017
So what has made the normally low-profile Madhya Pradesh CM make this post-truth claim? Well, he is learning from the best.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are the two most powerful men in the country, Bharat's absolute Bhagya Vidhatas. And neither of them are too particular about sticking to the truth.
Chouhan's ridiculous claim is nothing compared to what the all-powerful duo routinely dishes out, a tiny pothole, as it were, in front of grand canyons.
All politicians exaggerate their achievements and seek to play down those of their opponents. And Modi and Shah boldly went where no man has gone before. They smoothly changed the very manner in which the country's GDP is calculated, and then told us the figures were better than during the UPA's tenure.
They are still trying to convince us that demonetisation and the badly botched-up GST are "long-term" economic miracles, and the massive job losses and loss of income are mere bumps in the shiny, pothole-free road to new India, a promised land every believer must patiently wait for.
In his Independence Day address - one of the most watched public speeches of an Indian leader - the prime minister twisted facts and bent figures to claim that the NDA is winning the war against black money.
In May this year, Shah announced publicly that the Centre had given Rs 1 lakh crore to Telangana, something the state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao later said he didn't know about.
The government's wondrous claims at times even managed to wake up the otherwise apathetic Congress, which, when moved enough, comes up with sobriquets like "pheku" and "jumlon ki sarkar" for the great ruler and his government.
Campaigning before elections routinely features exaggerations by politicians to score points over opponents in front of an audience that is not likely to start fact-checking exercises of every leader's speech.
But this fantastical-claims-as-state-policy is a new development. When a leader states an easily verifiable lie publicly, he either assumes that everyone around him is too stupid to notice, or too scared to question. Starting from the absolute pinnacle of absolute power, this tendency among the BJP is spreading.
By making a statement abroad that has turned him into a laughing stock, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has done no wrong. He is merely another entrant into the jumla jamboree the country is enjoying.