Monday, March 05, 2007

Rs. One Lakh Car: An open letter to Tatas

Dear Mr. Tata,

Since you have announced the plan to roll out Rs. One Lakh Car, I have been more than happy because now a large number of 'middle-class' families of this Indian land will be able to fulfill their dream of owning a four wheeler. No, no... please don't worry this letter is not regarding your legal-illegal, I don't know, land acquisition/ grabbing in Singur(W.B.) as I am in no way related to those poor farmers and your plant will give me an opportunity to fulfill my dreams of owning a four-wheeler. May be some of them have died protesting your grabbing... oh.....sorry, acquisition but it doesn't matter to me... and why the hell should it matter??? Ohhhh.... shit I am drifting from the actual topic... I am not writing to bash you for Singur-its strictly between W.B. Government and you, and who am I to question this???
I am writing to you to thank you for making this car and fulfilling every 'aam aadmi's' dream of owning a car. Wow... its great!!! Now, thanks to you, every xyz (without being dis-respectful to any xyz reading this) can buy a car without ever giving a damn about the fuel, traffic or parking. I want to ask you a simple question-have you really thought about the affect that your Rs. 1Lakh car will have on Indian economy, the burden this Rs. 1 Lakh car will create on the already over-loaded infrastructure of this nation. With already roads jammed with traffic, so much problem with parking, unordered traffic, won't this car make the condition worse for the poor roads. I certainly believe your motive behind this car is the profit and probably(...huh!!!), to fulfill every aam aadmi's wish. But did you ever thought about the way this car will decrease our energy security or rather, increase our energy insecurity. Hydrocarbons, which are slowly joining the list of rare resources and which are now the cause of wars (courtesy Iraq :P), don't you think increase demand of it will unnecessarily burden our Nation's economy. I am saying this because people will still buy this car and in large numbers. Someone who could easily buy a bike earlier but can't think of a car will now add a few ten thousands and buy your dream car. Have you ever thought of bringing a model which is fuel efficient or use such energy-source which will cause less-pollution or be renewable. Don't you think its your duty to first solve this problem and then go for creating you dream. Besides fuel can't you even see our nation traffic and parking spaces. With this four-wheeler storming the roads, one can only expect the condition to deteriorate. Government won't do anything and condition, definitely, will go from bad too worse.
But still I know people will buy your cars, you will still make profit, people will definitely fight on road while driving your dream-car, traffic condition will definitely go haywire, drive for unusually long hours to travel small distances (alas!!! if you could provide them with better roads and parking spaces) and prices of petrol will definitely rise.

Regards
Shubham Lahoti


p.s: blog after 3 months :)

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