custom-ads

As Congress-baiter Mohandas Pai meets Karnataka DyCM Shivakumar, Netizens have varied responses

Pai, who is openly critical of the Congress and its leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, said he met Shivakumar to share his plans for Bengaluru.

Bellie Thomas

Published Jun 10, 2023 | 11:20 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 11, 2023 | 8:15 PM

DK Shivakumar met with Mohandas Pai and Abhay Jain in Bengaluru on Friday

DK Shivakumar met with Mohandas Pai and Abhay Jain in Bengaluru on Friday

Entrepreneur TV Mohandas Pai met Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar on Friday, 9 June.

It would have been just another courtesy call by a prominent citizen of Bengaluru on the minister in charge of the city, except Mohandas Pai’s meeting with Shivakumar led to varied reactions — ranging from mockery to criticism.

Pai, who in the past has been harshly critical of Congress and its leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, said the meeting was all about his suggestions to make Bengaluru better.

The deputy chief minister has been on a whirlwind tour of Bengaluru Urban and surrounding areas over the past few days. He interacted with local residents, civic activists, concerned government officials, urban and mobility experts for a first-hand experience of the issues plaguing the city.

Of all the meetings, his interaction with the Chairman of Manipal Global Education Mohandas Pai, and Abhay Jain, advisor to Manipal Education and Medical Group, caught everyone’s attention.

“Businessman and Padma Shri awardee Mr Mohandas Pai and Abhay Jain met me today and held a consultation,” Shivakumar tweeted after the meeting.

Related: DKS assures RR Nagar residents Hoskerehalli Lake will be restored

Mohandas Pai’s suggestions

Shivakumar and Pai discussed the way forward for further developing Bengaluru.

“It was a courtesy meeting which we sought, and he obliged. He was a keen listener. We hope that our suggestions and feedback have been taken in the right spirit,” Pai told South First.

Pai urged the deputy chief minister to take up a massive clean-up drive to clear Bengaluru city of heaps of construction debris dumped on roadsides and dividers and footpaths.

“Footpaths are considered as debris-dumping grounds and, sometimes, more than a half of the width of the road is used for discarding debris,” he said.

Pai termed the construction method in the city a disgrace, causing inconvenience to the public.

“This was not the case when the Delhi Metro was constructed. Here, the barricades are haphazard and broken, and the debris is being dumped on road dividers as well,” he added.

His second suggestion was to make footpaths pedestrian friendly. “People like to walk and they would avoid private or public transport options for short distances,” he said.

Netizens, however, had their own takes on the unusual meeting between Mohandas Pai, a staunch supporter of the BJP, with an aggressive Congress leader like DK Shivakumar — and  started trolling both the chairman of Manipal Global Education Services and the deputy chief minister for their unusual stances.

Related: BBMP says road across Hoskerehalli Lake is temporary

Promote walking

“This is the case with London and Shanghai where pedestrians are given ample space, and most of the people in those cities prefer to walk. The traffic congestion in the city could be reduced by around 20 to 30 percent if footpaths are remade with wider spaces and safety features,” the former chief financial officer of Infosys opined.

Pai’s third suggestion was to monitor the BMRCL Metro construction deadlines and review them every two weeks. The Metro has a track record of missing deadlines.

Pai suggested Shivakumar set a deadline of six months for the Metro to complete the stretch between Whitefield and Baiyapanahalli.

He said the aim should be to have 500 km of Metro rail in the city and 85 percent of Bengaluru should have a Metro station within a one to 1.5 km radius.

Pai also recommended the commissioning of 10,000 electric buses in Bengaluru over the next three years.

Highlighting his fondness towards the Union Government (BJP), Pai told Shivakumar that the Government of India has schemes where the state government can demand up to 50,000 buses.

“We should be quick and active in getting this to Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka. All corporations including the BMTC have bad management and the government should overcome this problem,” Pai told South First.

When a meeting like this happens between Pai and ‘DK Shee’ (DK Shivakumar’s popular household name), both of their respective fans and followers are expected to react in “troll mode”.

Trolling Mohandas Pai, a netizen tweeted: “He was the one who led the campaign against Bhagya schemes saying “my tax is for development and not for free”. Why should he meet congress leaders?!!”

Also read: FIR against BBMP engineers in death of Vijayawada engineer

Global engineering marvel at Hebbal

Pai ridiculed the Hebbal flyover project, terming it a “Global Engineering Marvel”. It is badly designed and requires a third lane while linking it with six-lane roads.

“Constructing a third lane on Hebbal flyover should take away 20 to 30 percent of traffic congestion in the bottleneck,” Pai stated, adding that Dr MA Saleem, former Special Commissioner (Traffic), is well-versed in issues dogging the Hebbal flyover.

“According to data, there are around 2,400 speed breakers, Saleem suggested that around 450 out of 2,400 them could be removed for facilitating swift and smooth traffic movement,” he said.

“The other issue is that of the service roads on the Outer Ring Roads. Most service roads are broken and pothole-riddled because of poor construction quality,” Pai said.

He also referred to urban mobility expert RK Misra, who identified 11 high-density roads and the means to decongest them.

Pai, a staunch critic of the freebie culture, had protested against the previous Congress government, saying it cannot just decide to give away doles with his hard-earned money.

He opined that Bengaluru’s real estate sector should be revived.

“The office spaces that Hyderabad built after the pandemic would be around 14 million sq ft, compared to Bengaluru’s 13.5 million sq ft. This is with the vacancy rate which is 6.5 percent in Bengaluru while Hyderabad has a 27 percent vacancy rate,” Pai said.

This is mostly because of the bribe amounts required to grease the palms of BDA and BBMP officials. Stem the corruption in BDA and BBMP, and there would be a boom in the realty sector and an increase in jobs in the city and state. When the government has set aside more than ₹50,000 crore for welfare schemes, there should be a corresponding increase in tax collection. It is possible only by this growth,” he explained.

Pai said that Shivakumar seemed to be “a man in a hurry to restore hope in Bengaluru”.

“A sea change is expected within the next three to six months. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best,” he said.

Ever since netizens knew about the meeting between Pai and DK Shee, it was only trolling — either advising DK Shivakumar to stay away from Pai or why would Pai have such double standards.

One netizen tweeted: “This is nothing, Empty cranium @TVMohandasPai will readily sit in shivakumar’s lap tomorrow if Congress wins lok sabha…his kind are the ones that side with power”

Another netizen advised Shivakumar, tweeting: “Hey DKS, this man Pai doesn’t deserve to be entertained. He has been abusing @INCIndia and it’s leadership day in day out 24x7x365. Actually he must be investigated for everything he and his group have been doing for last 10 years.”

Another netizen recalled an old tweet of Mohandas Pai and tweeted: “Why ? This was his stand on DK Shivkumar if you have forgotten. Why to entertain such people. ??

One more netizen supporting Shivakumar tweeted: “Dear DK Shivkumar sir, this guy Mohandas Pai is a core Congress enemy and has a staunch right winger who even provoked people 2 stand against the money being spent for the poor & downtrodden in the form of 5 guarantees of Congress. He ran a big campaign in fact by making a poster”

Follow us