Liberalisation’s killing machines

Last weekrsquos hitandrun incident in Mumbai involving a BMW and its inebriated driver who mowed down a woman yet again shows that more than three decades after the Indian economy was liberalised a distinctive pattern of living and dying and killing has emerged This pattern has been spawned by a class of citizens possessing enormous wealth to purchase luxury cars and sports utility vehicles which pack ample power to allow their drivers to race at extraordinary speedsThese hurricanesonwheels were conceived for highways with high or no speed limits such as Germanyrsquos autobahns in the hope of shrinking space and time But urban India crawls imposing a natural constraint on speeding Swanky cars and SUVs have values other than speed these are undeniably comfortable to ride and ostensibly bestow upon their owners a high social statusFor their children though the extraordinary speeds these vehicles promise are an irresistible temptation As night falls and roads empty out they get behind the wheels often after partying hard and thunder down city roads mistaking them in their inebriated condition for the fast lanes of the developed world The rush of blood the thrill of speed Excitement has always been an aspect of liberalisationBang the accident Mangled vehicles dead pedestrians The driver walks out of his SUV its protective mechanism having shielded him from injury or death He runs away He knows his wealthy papa will work the system as papas always do to try to save him from the clutches of lawIt is a collision of two worlds orbiting at two different speeds with contrasting economic statuses Kaveri Nakhwa who died under the wheels of Mihir Shahrsquos BMW in Mumbai last week was a fishseller She and her husband were on a motorcycle In May in Pune a builderrsquos son intoxicated and underage driving a Porsche at 150 kmhour smashed into a motorcycle killing two young IT professionals His father was allegedly working the political network to save his childThe nightmareonwheels sensationally crashed arguably for the first time into media headlines eight years after liberalisation In 1999 Sanjeev Nanda son of an arms dealer and grandson of a former Indian Navy Chief returning early morning from a party drove his BMW at 140 kmh into a police checkpoint in Delhi killing six Media stories about payouts to an eyewitness and a public prosecutor surfaced Although convicted many thought Sanjeev got away lightlySince then the 1999 Delhi hitandrun case has been replicated elsewhere In December 2013 a black Aston Martin Rapide registered with Ambani Ports swerved into an Audi and a Hyundai sedan at high speed The Audirsquos woman driver was quoted seeing a young man rush out of the Aston Martin and jump into one of the SUVs escorting him It was furiously speculated whether the driver was one of Mukesh Ambanirsquos sons Next day a 55yearold Ambani employee claimed he had taken out the car for a test drive late at nightIn September 2002 film star Salman Khanrsquos Land Cruiser ran over four homeless men sleeping on the pavement before ramming into a bakery It was alleged he was drunk and at the wheel Khan was in 2015 convicted by a Sessions Court but its judgement the Bombay High Court overturned The star was exonerated because his driver claimed it was he who was driving the Land Cruiser at believe it or not 30 kmhourForget city roads the national highway as smooth as runways with multiple lanes is emerging as a veritable death lane Former Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry died when the Mercedes he was in crashed at 100 kmhour Actor and activist Deep Sidhu rearended a truck with his Mahindra Scorpio and perished An internet search reveals a depressingly long list of incidents that bear out the adagemdashspeed thrills but kills Here is an incredible example in 2022 one of the three passengers doing a Facebook Live in a BMW hurtling at 230 kmhour on Uttar Pradeshrsquos Purvanchal Express urged the driver to clock 300 kmh Next moment they were dead as their BMW crashed into a truckLook also at the statistics provided by a report of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways although national and state highways constitute just five per cent of Indiarsquos total road network they together accounted for 565 per cent of the 461312 accidents in India in 2022 Of the 168491 fatalities in road accidents that year 60 per cent were on these highways Over three lakh accidents occurred on straight roads in contrast to around 55000 on curved roads Not surprisingly overspeeding was the single biggest cause of accidents on national highwaysmdasha whopping 72 per centPostliberalisation India could as well adopt rock group Deep Purplersquos 1972 song Highway Star as its anthem The songrsquos opening lines accompanied with furious guitaring go ldquoNobody gonna take my carIrsquom gonna race it to the groundNobody gonna beat my carItrsquos gonna break the speed of soundOoh itrsquos a killing machinehelliprdquo This song celebrates individualism which in India is often without restraint without a concern for others in disregard of rules as is so evident in the economic sectorThe writer is a senior journalist and author of Bhima Koregaon Challenging CasteSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper