Fake news Buster: Alleged Bullet Train Loan issues – Congress Spreading Chinese-planted Lies

National Herald, the Congress online Fake News portal came up with yet another lie.  They suggested that “PM Modi’s Bullet train dream derails after Japan stops funding”.  The fact that the Bullet train is not just the dream of PM Modi, but of many who see India’s development as the key to the future of the country is besides the point.

What is interesting that Congress seems to be exulting that farmers are protesting the land acquisition which will stop the construction of the first bullet train project in India.  As if it is invested in the protests by the farmers.  Even if farmers were protesting some bad land acquisition policies, wouldn’t it make sense to work with authorities to ease the issue?

But national interest or good is not what Congress is looking at.  It is a vulture which seeks opportunities to strike at opportunities.  However, in this case, even that is not the case.

The farmers protest over the land acquisition process has perhaps miffed JICA, said a Finance Ministry official to the media, as it has so far released only ₹125 crore, against its agreement to provide nearly ₹80,000 crore for the bullet train project, the cost of which was estimated at ₹ 1 lakh crore. JICA has demanded that the Modi government first settle the farmers’ grievances against the project, claimed an official of the Finance Ministry on the condition of anonymity. (Source: National Herald)

The truth is something totally different.  Let us look into that now.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL), which is nodal agency for the execution of the project has refuted the fake news.

Questioning the veracity of media report claiming that Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has stopped funding for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train on the pretext that the government should first look into the problems of farmers, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL), nodal agency for the execution of the project, said the report is not true and not based on facts.

“In fact, the GoI and JICA have already signed a loan agreement of about 10 billion yen and no payment is pending from JICA as on date,” NHSRCL said in a statement.

NHSRCL said it is committed to care of the interests of the affected farmers, adding that all necessary steps with regard to submission of various reports ie. social impact assessment, environment impact assessment and indigenous people plan have already been taken by the Indian side and the reports already submitted to JICA.

Not just the NHSRCL, but even the Japanese Ambassador has called the Congress “report” a lie.

After media report claiming Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has stopped funding for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train on the pretext that the government should first look into the problems of farmers were published, the Japanese Ambassador on Wednesday refuted the claims and said that the project is on track.

Japanese Ambassador Kenji Hiramatsu said that they are going to continue the fund for the ambitious project. The ambassador also said that the project would be completed within the 2022 deadline for the project.

So if the Lender (the Japanese) are saying it is a lie, and the lendee (NHSRCL) is saying it is a lie; based on what information did Rahul Gandhi’s Congress come up with this fake news on its mouth-piece National Herald?

There is a man called Éric Toussaint, who calls himself a historian and a political scientist and runs an organization called Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) – formerly called Committee for the cancellation of the Thirld World Debt.  It is ostensibly a network of “activists”who claim to fight for human rights.  Amongst other claims and work, their objectives and goals include some truly loony ideas not even worthy of a 10 year old given any understanding of the world reality, like taxation of speculative financial transactions, setting up of a world tax on large incomes, and global conversion of military expenditure into social and cultural expenditure. On the portal of this organization, there was an article suggesting that the Indian bullet train project was violating the guidelines of JICA with respect to its loans for the bullet train.  In the article titled Japanese Investor’s (JICA) Guidelines Violated in the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project (MAHSR),  the authors put forth a verbose and rhetorically nonsensical argument with little substance that somehow, unbeknownst to JICA itself, the NHSRCL has violated its guidelines.

And one thought only Rahul Gandhi’s Congress had the chutzpah of speaking out of turn and above their paygrade.

Now, if this was a work of over-ambition, one could pardon them.  It wasn’t.  It has some interesting backers.

The guy – Toussaint – came to India in April 2018 and met with and spoke in a seminar which was chaired by Asim Kumar Dasgupta, the erstwhile Finance Minister of West Bengal during the CPI (M) regime.  Here is an excerpt of what Toussaint said.

In collaboration with a cultural association, this trade union had invited me to give a lecture, on 16 April, on the topic of central banks, socialisation of the banking sector and illegitimate debts including those of large private corporations. There were about 120 participants, mainly central bank and public banks’ trade unionists (the TU for central banks’ employees is part of a larger federation of bank employees). My lecture was chaired by a former finance minister of the West Bengal government (West Bengal has 90 million inhabitants). We have to keep in mind that West Bengal was run by a coalition called Left Front for 34 years from 1977 to 2011. The coalition brought together the Communist Party of India(Marxist), All India Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, the Biplabi Bangla Congress and the Communist Party of India.

So, not only is this in cohorts with the Communists but also very nice to China.  Is that a coincidence?  It doesn’t remain that innocent does it?  Before we move on, please watch this.

So, if you are one of those who has been taken in by the Congress propaganda, backed by China and the Communists, you may want to clearly know what you are in the eyes of such powers.  “Useful Idiots”.

That is probably why Rahul Gandhi was making his so-called Kailash Mansarovar journey.  He was looking for another partner for his “Mahagathbandhan”.  Pakistan, China and Congress.

Not only is the Bullet train loan issue a fake news, but the tentacles of the falsehoods probably go all the way to Beijing!