[selfdrive]

alpha1, why you want to punish the poor bullocks with these overweight people?

Lets just give them bicycles for travelling within city, the Atlas Goldline non geared ones. Or they can choose to use local municipal transport. At least then bus routes and frequency will improve.

For inter city transport, they should be asked to take second class rail travel for distances more than 300km and ordinary state transport buses (no luxury/ volvo) for distances upto 300km.

[Swanand Inamdar]

How about "padyatra"? Since most of them supposedly idolize Gandhi, they might as well be forced to take up his stance of walking, for most of the time.

For those absolutely imminant inter city travels, make use of our world class railways.
Wait! The booking for which has to be done through the IRCTC website. Preferrably, in tatkal catagory.

[amitg79]

If they have to be given a car, I would vote for the Reva as an ideal politician carrier.

Advantages are:
1) At least the politicians' vehicles will run clean, even if they themselves don't.
2) Not too much space to stash and transport black money.
3) If they use too much of their strobe lights / sirens, their cars run out of charge early, stranding them (hopefully) in the middle of nowhere.
4) Their motorcades will be much smaller and therefore manageable.
5) Make them realize the current hopeless state of the country's electricity infrastructure.
6) Due to the above point, they can open up FDI in clean energy so that they can trap more foreign companies in red tape and tax them retrospectively. And we still don't have a 'clean energy scam', so that is pending.

Can anyone think of any disadvantages?

[CareFreeKid]

Originally Posted by amitg79

If they have to be given a car, I would vote for the Reva as an ideal politician carrier.

Originally Posted by amitg79

Can anyone think of any disadvantages?

Dude.. what about the back seat comfort the Politi-Cos need? And most of them won't anyways be able to drive given the 60+ age and squeaking joints!

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

How about "padyatra"? Since most of them supposedly idolize Gandhi, they might as well be forced to take up his stance of walking, for most of the time.

they idolize only one Gandhi, the picture on the note.

thinking of this, why give them any booking at all. they will take up the entire bogie. they should be asked to take general bogie which is usually at the end of the train.

[raj_5004]

With 17 cars a month, TATA is facing huge losses with the Aria. Let the politicos buy Arias at discounted rates.

TATA will make huge profits and as far as the politicians are concerned, I want them to post in this thread -

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ownership.html

Outcome :

1) These corrupt guys will learn a lesson. Let them bang their heads at the A.S.S.
2) Because of the "orders from top", TATA will have no choice but to make a niggle free Aria.

Win-win situation for us.

[mempheS.D]

These guys deserve nothing "less" than an air-conditioned Ambassador classic with the engine exhaust pipe connected to the the aircon vents, 100% tinted windows which can never be opened.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

alpha1, why you want to punish the poor bullocks with these overweight people?

Lets just give them bicycles for travelling within city, the Atlas Goldline non geared ones. Or they can choose to use local municipal transport. At least then bus routes and frequency will improve.

For inter city transport, they should be asked to take second class rail travel for distances more than 300km and ordinary state transport buses (no luxury/ volvo) for distances upto 300km.

agreed.
public carrier.
The problem lies with general indian psche - which believes that politicians have a divine birth right to rule over the public - exactly the reason why movie stars become "successful" politicians overnight

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

1) These corrupt guys will learn a lesson. Let them bang their heads at the A.S.S.

LOL nice idea. They would chuck the arias and buy their own preferred brand for peace of mind. Not that the aria is not reliable enough, but going by what you said, the outcome will be so. There are so many such government cars gathering dust due to various reasons. The politicos buy a car of their choice and claim fuel expenses. It is only common people who spend hard earned money on such cars who have to struggle with the company. However, feedback part will be a bane for the companies and a boon for customers, if there are any.

Suppose a bunch of politicos buy an unreliable car, and then let it lay unused due to lack of reliabity and frequent breakdowns, they get media attention. When the media questions them on why they are wasting government money, they will lambast the car. If a car is not selling well, such statements will totally kill the car. And after that, even if things are rectified, it wi be difficult for any company, leave tata to gain the hearts of people. Cars like the scorpio, fortuner etc which are commonly used by them lead to people getting influenced to buy the same car. Just my thoughts..

[faustus77]

Originally Posted by alpha1

agreed.
public carrier.
The problem lies with general indian psche - which believes that politicians have a divine birth right to rule over the public - exactly the reason why movie stars become "successful" politicians overnight

Alpha1
Hi
Bang on target.
We had kings followed by the moghuls in turn followed by the British.
After they left it is the politicians who have the divine right.
Most of the countries have moved on from being subjects of a king but not us.On a different thread I had mentioned that an average car driver will give way to a red beaconed car but not to an ambulance.
Regards
PS Times of India(5/7) page 14 carried a report that a waitress at a coffee shop chided PM of UK Cameron for breaking the queue.She requested him to await his turn (she did not recognise him).The point here is that the PM went to buy his own coffee and pay for it.
Mods.The above PS is a bit off topic.If it is inappropriate please delete.Sorry for inconvenience

[carwatcher]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

Outcome :
1) These corrupt guys will learn a lesson. Let them bang their heads at the A.S.S.
2) Because of the "orders from top", TATA will have no choice but to make a niggle free Aria.
Win-win situation for us.

If this post is written as sarcasm then its worth appreciating but if its otherwise then I would disagree, why?
Because Ambassadors are used by our Netas and Babus since time immemorial and did it make Amby a decent quality product, the answer is big No. Infact, I remember reading on T-Bhp 'Test Drives' section (its now discontinued, I miss it badly) that its quite normal to expect Niggles and visits to workshop from day one of ownership. Pathetic, isn't it.
Similarly, I remember that some years ago, the entire lot of Ambys which were used at Rashtrapati Bhavan were replaced by Sexy looking Tata Safaris in all Black colour incl windows (they look too good, one can see them on 15 Aug/26 Jan celebrations). But did it make Tata or Safari a top quality niggle free product. Again, the answer is NO.
PS: I read somewhere that The Ambys (and other cars) used by the top Netas cost around Rs. 20-25 Lac each (or more for other cars) to the Govt. as it uses bullet proof glasses, better wheels and tyres, radio signal jammers, other safety gadgets, etc. So anyway its useless to expect normal cars to be at par with Netas, etc.
In today's scenario everyone prefers UVs due to obvious reasons, so they are the best cars for politicians, esp White Innova.

[SedatedDrive]

Ambys used by Government officials are more expensive to procure than the usual Ambys. The Ambys are customized to bring comfort levels and utilities to the level of... wait for it - the Manza.

Government Ambys are also very heavy due to all the extra metal/chrome/headlights/horns/flag poles/rain shields/spoilers that are added prior to delivery. What is the fuel efficiency? You will be lucky to get 5-6 Km/l from fuel paid for by the Government.

Last but not the least - majority of them are petrol Ambys.

Less said about maintenance/repairs/resale value, the better.

Hence tax payers gain to benefit if the Government switches from Amby to say a diesel Manza or Dzire. The VIP ones could be granted the Sunny which is both VFM and frugal.

Now that is aside, let us dwell on some really hypocritical comments made in this thread:
1. This is Team BHP, a forum of car and bike lovers. So I can't help but laugh every time I read comments like "politicians should use the public transport instead"! No really why would they?

Take MPs for example. As it is many of them turn up late to Parliament. Now imagine all of them using the Delhi public transport instead...

Exactly.

2. Even though their efficiency may not be satisfactory, I would rather our Government officials (including elected representatives) reach their destinations on time so they are most able to carry out the duty we entrusted upon them on our behalf instead of our country losing 100s of crores a day because a certain minister of state was held up on a flyover in a bus while an important policy document waits for his signature to pass on to the next department...

3. Buy from their own money? Why should an elected representative from another state spend Lakhs of his money to buy a car to use in Delhi?
Many of us are salaried private professionals. We would likely be employed in big companies. The top company officials would be using cars and fuel paid by the company.

Why? Why not ask them to use the public transport or buy a new car from his pocket everytime he has to move to a company site in a different city? The company just can not afford to lose productivity at a grand scale. This is their perk. It keeps them focused on the job at hand. The cost of a car or its fuel is a small sum in their P&L statement.

4. I am not even talking about the number of 'common people' we will lose because terrorists would start to target our as-it-is-crumbling State Transports because of the VIPs.

Seriously think about it practically before making absurd suggestions on how microcosm parts of our country should run or be run. Since apparently quite a number of our well meaning citizens belch at the thought of politics or governance (including some on this forum), we have to do with the current crop of politicians.

Yes, I would be annoyed at excesses like Audi Q7s in the place of a Government Amby. An economical and reliable workhorse like the Sunny or the Dzire would make more sense. Anyway our country can be saved only if every citizen participated in our democracy instead of blindly outsourcing it to the 'netas' and 'babus'. Fat chance going by current trends.

Trivia: Corolla Altis and Honda City is the current choice of the TN Government for transport of key officials.

[shankar.balan]

Best is to make all politicians and other public servants use only public transport forthwith, forever, from now onward, with immediate effect. All politicians and public servants weighing more than 70kg in case of men and 52 kg in case of women must be made to walk everywhere or bicycle everywhere on those Hero cycles with hard plastic seats. No seat gel packs allowed. They can carry water in a sling bag or back pack along with all their office kit and other stuff including lunch box etc, but the rule is that they need to carry it all themselves. No flunkeys allowed. This rule should apply regardless of age or gender or even personal wealth whether ill gotten or otherwise. This applies for all weather conditions. Concessions such as duckback raincoats are allowed. Or sunglasses and caps whose cost individually shall not exceed Rs 500 to be paid from own pocket.

[DicKy]

Offtopic as am not talking about ordinary politicians cars, talking about what the head of our states roll on.
The Presidential car or the PM car should be symbolic of the country's automobile industry if there is any. Though we can't compromise on their safety,at least for symbolic functions like Republic day, can't our domestic companies make atleast a one-off model like what the chinese did?

[lohithrao]

"Public transport" is what these guys deserve and nothing more, at the most give them a "pass" which will allow them to use all the various types of services city buses(Volvo/normal)