Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 751: Five months later... (1/2)

January 1662

In the blink of an eye, 5 months had unknowingly slipped by.

A lot of changes had taken place in the Bharatiya Empire, both positive and negative.

For starters, talking about the positives, the new members of the royal family, Tanvika Devaraya and Vidhant Devaraya, have turned out to be just as genius as their brother and their father because, even though they are barely half a year old, they are already trying to crawl on the ground while curiously monitoring everything they come across.

But on a negative note, three very influential figures in the Bharatiya Empire unfortunately passed away.

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The first person to go was none other than Saint Tukaram. Apparently, when Agni came back home during Kavya’s labour, he was already informed that he would no longer have to come to the classes anymore, but Agni only thought that the teacher was giving him a short break given that he had some things to deal with.

But who would have thought, only a few days after Vidhant and Tanvika were born, Tukaram, as if he had already anticipated it, passed away sitting inside the Samadhi which he had built for himself.

This news was particularly heartbreaking for Agni, his closest disciple. He could not understand what happened. Wasn’t the teacher in high spirits when he last saw him? Even his aura was brighter than usual as if it was a sun blinding his eyes. Even his movements were more fluid than before. Then why did such a thing happen?

Agni cried bitterly, making even his brother and sister cry out.

"Son, there is a saying that a candle burns brightest in its last moments. Maybe the Saint had already foreseen his end and didn’t bother anyone with the news."

"But don’t worry, he might have already achieved Moksha and be relieved from the endless cycles of life, sickness, and death we mortals have to experience."

"Instead of being sad, we should celebrate his path to Brahma and celebrate the life he had lived."

Vijay patiently consoled Agni, trying his best to calm him down, after which he did what he suggested—that was to celebrate his life and his achieving of Moksha. He built a large monument for Tukaram in the place where he passed away and had artisans inscribe his whole life story onto the walls, as well as included him as one of the prominent figures of the Bharatiya Empire in the curriculum of all the school students.

Eventually, the sadness died down, but out of nowhere, a month later, the first Marshal of the Bharatiya Empire—the old man who was responsible for holding up the Bharatiya military at one point and the core figure in forming the foundation for the Bharatiya Empire to defeat the Mughals—His Excellency Logananda Senapati, was no more.

Due to his advanced age and his constant illness brought by the pain of his old injuries, he could no longer hold on to his mortal body and passed on.

The whole nation was in an uproar, and all the newspapers had his picture along with his achievements as the headline.

For his burial ceremony, over a few hundred thousand people showed up with sombre expressions, and tears in their eyes, to send the old man off.

Kiran Poojari, who could be considered a successor to Logananda Senapati, knelt in front of the old man’s grave and did not leave for the whole day. He was mourning the loss of the most important mentor in his life.

The sadness and disappointment did not end there, as a few months later, Vijay’s maternal grandfather Sunil Shetty unfortunately passed away when he fell down in the bathroom due to slipping. Initially, he had only broken his femur, but due to his already complicated health, added with the pain, he could not survive.

The royal family, in the literal sense, had no more elders anymore.

Essentially, the five months for the Devaraya family were the darkest days.

However, thankfully, not everything was so gloomy and negative. There were a lot of good things that happened in the Bharatiya Empire which brought a little positive light to the family.

A month ago, the All Bharath election took place, which decided the fate of many politicians and governments, and the results obtained were both as predicted and surprising.

Predicted when considering the central government, but very unexpected and surprising when seeing the results of state governments and lower levels.

This time, due to the election being held all over the empire, the voters were asked to cast 4 different votes—one for the taluk level, one for the district level, one for the state level, and one for the national level.

This method of voting would have confused the majority of people in the last life, but in this life, this is not a big problem because there is an examination system that restricts most uneducated people from voting, and those educated people do not find it too hard to distinguish between what they want on a taluk level and what they want at a national level.

Anyway, for the Ministry of Transportation, the minister remained Nirmal as his resume speaks for itself, with 16,710 kilometres of new road added in one year alone, bringing the total length to 59,650 km. What’s more, the number of ports throughout the empire had increased by 218.

Maybe on paper, this is not a large number, and it is not too impressive when comparing it with last year’s improvements, but what was impressive was the number of medium-scale ports, which used to be 120, had suddenly jumped to 456, out of which the majority are inland ports that are further developed for faster economic exchange between states and cities sharing a river channel. Even the major ports with cargo throughput of over one million tonnes had increased to 32 ports from 14 ports. With all these accomplishments, it would actually be a miracle if Nirmal was not re-elected.

For the Ministry of Sports, there were no surprises either. Maharana Pratap did an excellent job policing all the sports tournaments as well as the Aykyotsava festival that happened recently. Not to mention, under his governance, the whole sports sector produced revenue of over 110,000,000 Varaha, and it was directly valued by Abhijeet Kumar Sen, a leading economist, at a whopping 210 million Varaha, and this is only because it is hard to evaluate the value of virtual assets like the brand influence of the clubs and the teams, so he was a little conservative.

Amit Shah, the minister from the Ministry of Standards, was again re-elected as the ministry under his governance, brought in a lot of business to the Bharatiya Empire due to the quality guarantee of Bharatiya products, as well as mid and shoddy products almost disappearing from the local markets, thereby increasing the reliability and safety factors when purchasing goods and services.

Lokesh, the Minister of Health, won with an overwhelming majority. With the privatisation of hospitals and liberalisation of job opportunities for medical professionals, the number of hospitals in the Bharatiya Empire immediately jumped from over 19,900 to 83,000, out of which the majority were small clinics and medical shops opened by medical students graduating from first-tear and below medical universities in their hometowns or villages. The medical staff all over the empire officially hit over a million people, bringing Lokesh a very big boost in his popularity.

As far as Jagannath Mohan the Minister of Finance was concerned, people didn’t even try to vote for someone else. Jagannath Mohan ran the Ministry of Finance with an iron fist. He is quite popular with the people because he is one of those ministers who dares to confront anyone in the matters of the nation’s finances, and that includes His Majesty. His deeds of questioning the Prime Minister for government spending were constantly known to the people from the business newspaper.

This alone was enough for the people to elect him, but the GDP growth of 60% plus, bringing the empire’s GDP to sixteen billion seven hundred and forty million six hundred and eighty-one thousand two hundred and forty Varaha, did not play a small role either.

Moving on, the deputy minister of Agriculture, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, officially took on the mantle of the minister, and his election was no surprise either because, with the absence of Minister Narasimha, he took on most tasks of the Ministry of Agriculture, increasing the number of cultivated fields from 130,000 acres to 193,000 acres, as well as providing convenience for large-scale farmers and small-scale farmers to rent or buy farming equipment like the harvester at cheaper costs by giving some subsidies, as well as providing a platform for farmers to sell grain to foreign merchants, bringing the total amount of grain produced to over one hundred and eleven million three hundred and forty-five thousand five hundred and sixty tonnes, as well as establishing 2,910 additional warehouses across the nation, increasing the strategic stock of grain reserve in the food bank under the Strategic Materials Management Bureau of the Imperial Committee Vishnu Branch.

Minister of Internal Affairs, Arjun, was re-elected as the security condition of the urban and rural areas had greatly increased. One way Arjun did this was by increasing the staffing, where it increased from 275,000 people to over 966,000, and even the number of police stations increased from 25,000 to 42,000.

Additionally, with the approval of Vijay, he brought in a major reform in the ministry where the police force was now restructured into five different levels for better management. The central level consisted of the Director General of Police, Inspector General of Police, and Deputy Inspector General of Police. The state level contained the Director General of Police for the state, the Inspector General of Police for the state, and a Deputy Inspector General of Police, along with the Superior Superintendent of Police and Superintendent of Police. For the district level, there was a Deputy Superintendent of Police and Assistant Superintendent of Police. For the police station level, there was an Inspector, Sub-Inspector, and Assistant Sub-Inspector, and at the constable or grassroots level, there was a Head Constable and the Constable.

Along with all these, he also established a different branch in the ministry completely separated from the police force called the Bharatiya Criminal Investigation Department or BCID, which is the intelligence wing of the police department where they are used to solve cases that are conventionally not possible by police means.

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With all these new innovations coming into play, it is no wonder Arjun got re-elected.

To Be Continued...