While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s #MakeInIndia initiative has attracted huge investment in the country, a few people has question his personal commitment to the mission citing the presence of BMW 7 Series cars in his convoy.

When this question surfaced on Quora, a user came up with the perfect reply backed by logic and facts to this question.

“I appreciate the question because even small things display your intent.

When PM Modi was about to assume office for the first time, Mr. Anand Mahindra wrote to PM Modi requesting him to make Scorpio his official car. He also sought to make any changes demanded by SPG(Special Protection Group). There are many reasons as to why it did not go ahead.

First of it is that even after the modifications it was not considered safe by the SPG, as the Scorpio has a very high stance, and it would serve an easy target for snipers as it would stand out among the surrounding BMW X5’s which carry the SPG men. The 7-Series on the other hand is low-stance car which is adequately protected from a direct shot by surrounding cars(X5’s). Also, a car with lower ground clearance has it’s center of mass more closer to the ground. It responds faster to sudden changes in movement and is easier to control & maneuver.

Second: The threat perception of PM Modi is much greater than the erstwhile CM Modi. SPG did the right thing by going along with a tested German system of cars known for reliability and used worldwide. Contrast this against the Scorpio without a convincing track record.

Third: They already had the BMW 7 series which were bought during the tenure of the former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee(before BMW, Indian PMs used to travel in Ambassadors). Also, there were talks that some other cars were also being considered other than BMW and Scorpio. But, the government refrained from spending extra unnecessarily and decided to use the existing 7 series fleet which already had all the security features required by SPG for PM Modi’s protection.

The idea is ‘Make in India’ not ‘Make Indian’. India Inc.’s potential to invest is limited to a certain extent and have other bottlenecks like technology and expertise. Bringing in foreign money also brings with it foreign technology, experience and much better level of competition. This would help in lowering the fiscal deficit(benefits India), create jobs at a massive scale(benefits Indians), transfer of cutting edge technology(to India) and create a robust supply chain. All this will create an investment cycle in the Indian economy which will help us reach high growth phase(maybe double digit) and sustaining it in the long term. This is exactly what China did and it sustained double digit growth for 30 years.”

Source: Jayant Kaushik’s answer to If Narendra Modi promotes “Make in India” then why does he use a BMW car for commuting?

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