The Associated Press rode one of the longest trains in India to interview voters about an election t

(21 May 2024)

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RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
New Delhi - 20 April 2024
1. Thirukkural Express leaving from a New Delhi train station
2. Woman being helped on to a train as it gathers speed
3. Train moving, railway tracks
4. Pan from a toilet inside the train, belongings lying inside to person sitting outside in general class compartment of Thirukkural Express
5. Various of people in a general class compartment

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Exact location unknown, onboard the Thirukkural Express - 20 April 2024
6. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Pardeep Kumar, food stall owner:
“All we want is welfare of the poor. Provision of five kilograms of free ration should be stopped. We want education and health, that’s what we need. After that we will earn ourselves and take care of our needs. Not just five we can buy ten kilograms then.”
7. Various of people inside the sleeper class compartment on their berths
8. Tilt up from retired railway official Haji Abdul Subhan to passenger on an upper berth
9. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Haji Abdul Subhan, retired railway official:
“Ten, twenty years ago we were one, but now we have been divided, this should not have happened.”
10. Outside view from the moving Thirukkural Express
11. Various of a passenger watching a video showing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving a speech in the air-conditioned class compartment
12. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Mahadev Prasad, businessman:
“The atmosphere in the country is good and the government is doing well on the international level. The country is in strong hands, that’s what I feel.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Exact location unknown, onboard the Thirukkural Express - 21 April 2024
13. Thirukkural Express passes by a stationary train
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikunj Garg, medical officer:
“I think it is the small things that matter the most. Thinking about everyone, not only the poor people but getting everyone on the same page.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu - 22 April 2024
15. Passengers walking away with bags at the Kanyakumari train station ++NIGHT SHOTS++
16. Various of a sunrise on a beach in Kanyakumari
STORYLINE:
The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey south from New Delhi to Kanyakumari is one of the longest train rides in India, passing through cities, villages, scrub forests and deep ravines.

The 22-car Thirukkural Express is a microcosm of India, carrying passengers from different castes and religions and with wide-ranging ambitions and grievances --- from migrants crammed into sweltering no-frills cars to well-heeled families luxuriating in air-conditioned sleeper cabins, and everyone in between.

Passengers can also be divided by their politics, a topic that is top of mind with a consequential election underway. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to win and reappoint Prime Minister Narendra Modi — the leader for the past decade — for another five years.

India’s economy has grown rapidly under Modi, but the strong-arm tactics he has deployed to push his Hindu-nationalist agenda has sharpened religious divisions in the country of 1.4 billion people – roughly 200 million of whom are Muslim – and raised fears of a slide from secular democracy toward religious autocracy.

The Associated Press recently made the 48-hour train journey to interview Indian voters about the election, whose results will be announced on June 4. Below are some highlights:

THE GENERAL CLASS
Pardeep Kumar, a bespectacled man who runs a food stall in New Delhi, said the ruling Modi government isn’t doing enough for the poor.
THE SLEEPER CLASS
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