The sweeping changes effected by this government are not only unmerited but are retrogressive and have severely harmed the Railways. The tragedy for the nation is that the damage is perpetual.

My story is about hubris and unspeakable tragedy. It is about the steady erosion of traditions and systems on Indian Railways (IR), one of the great Railways of the world. Alas, it is also about the horrendous three-train collision at Balasore and what it tells us of the ethos on IR.

First, a look at the overweening hubris founded on sophistry, which is the defining feature of this government. A few days back, addressing the nation while flagging off the Dehradun-Delhi Vande Bharat Express, the PM, as is his wont, lashed out at earlier governments for doing nothing on infrastructure development or high-speed trains. He bragged that “all-round work to transform the Railways began only after 2014. Everyone was clueless before this.” In one fell swoop, this arrogant, self-obsessed leader dismissed offhand the blood, sweat and invaluable contribution of Railway men and women across the six odd decades since Independence.

The Prime Minister of India didn’t stop there. Without context, he brought up the subject of the country’s successful handling of the Covid 19 pandemic and the rolling out of the world’s largest vaccination campaign. Psychologists will, no doubt, analyze the psychosis that sets off his constant harping on what has been the greatest of his many failures, even as the rest of us want to forget the mortifying trauma of the pandemic, aggravated by the sudden lockdown and the rash of election/religious gatherings.

It is a tragic reality that under this regime, the pre-eminent and abiding priority is the burnishing of the Vishwaguru’s image. When a good thing happens, fulsome credit is given to the visionary PM whereas failure finds a nesting place elsewhere, and when scapegoating is not possible, the spin doctors step in with fanciful fiction to keep the faith. Consistent with this formula, the dark truth of the pandemic has been consigned to oblivion and supplanted by a factitious success story about exemplary vaccination rollout and vaccination aid to countries in distress. Perhaps, the PM believes that we are a bunch of gullible fools who have forgotten the millions of deaths, the myriads gasping for oxygen in the corridors of hospitals, the burning pyres in makeshift crematoriums in parking lots, the sea of bodies floating on the Ganga whose banks were littered with little mounds festooned with saffron cloth that were graves. By converting a colossal tragedy into a concocted success story, this man has belittled the suffering of his people!

Following in the footsteps of his master, the railway minister, a preening parvenu, never tires of stating that real transformation in the Railways has happened in the last nine years. Bumptious and ill-informed about the Indian Railways’ remarkable journey through the years, the former bureaucrat would have us believe that the Railways was a sector that was neglected for over 60 years until Modi, ably assisted by his railway minister, emerged as the Railways’ saviour in 2014. By all accounts, the rail mantri is insufferable in his all-too-frequent interactions with the railway management, sermonizing to a captive audience on the need for shedding “the colonial mindset”, adverting to his own exemplary work ethic: “Till 3 years ago, I used to do welding myself because I have to keep myself grounded to reality.” Clearly the bully rather than the motivator, his moralizing is punctuated with the mandatory trademark threats against the management and non-performing officials.

The absurd myth about the transformation of the Railways post 2014 has been constructed primarily on highly selective projection of facts, an ingenious manipulation of the truth about performance and a high-octane propaganda blitz. All the hype is focused on the Vande Bharat trains, the frenetic pace of electrification that will extend over the entire system by the end of the year, and the PM’s cherished high-speed Bullet Train project.

It needs pointing out that the Vande Bharat clutch of trains is but a logical progression from the Shatabdis and showcases the outstanding technological and innovative skills of our railway men and women but, like in every other sphere, our present political masters have appropriated all the credit for these glitzy trains.

Regarding the high speed rail, as far back as 2007, a detailed project report regarding feasibility and desirability of Bullet Trains was considered by the Railway ministry and rejected on the grounds that it was financially ruinous; that it targeted an elitist clientele when the country’s need was for more and better services for ordinary sleeper class passengers; that it would involve launch of a new standard gauge track that would ultimately neutralize the benefits of “Unigauge”. All these counter-arguments are even more salient today but such considerations count for nothing when set against the brute reality that this is a vanity project of the only man whose interests matter in this country. 

This is a government that has been criminally profligate and perceives the bottom line as of no consequence. It does not seem to give a damn that on account of its spendthrift ways, the outstanding debt on the Government of India which was 56 lakh crores in 2014 has tripled to 155 lakh crores in 2023. Indian Railways (IR) also appears to have jettisoned its corporate mission of striving for profitability without compromising on its social commitments. There is one indubitable fact about this regime’s method of working: funds will never be a constraint for any project that catches its fancy!  

This government has the dubious reputation for costly showmanship, for making radical changes for the sake of change, if only to advertise to the world that under Modi, India Is witnessing a root-and-branch reformation. Tragically for IR, it has been the prime target of this ill-conceived institutional bombing. In its desperate obsession to do things differently, this government has actually done everything possible to disrupt the traditions and systems of our country’s oldest and largest industrial undertaking. 

Since Independence, there was the definitive conviction that in order to effectively perform its ordained role as the prime transport mode and propellant of economic growth, the Indian railways needed to be independent, nimble footed in decision-making and insulated from the rigid bureaucratic practices that typify governmental functioning. That was the rationale for a separate Railway budget but in 2016, the Railways were divested of their financial autonomy by merging the railway budget with the Union budget. A catastrophic consequence of this institutional degradation has been a palpable loss of focus on the Railways’ corporate mission of balancing profitability with social obligations. The earlier rigorous monitoring of financial performance is now absent as is the level of commitment to meeting organizational goals.

Another gratuitous decision that has hampered the organization is the total revamp of the Railway management structure in 2019 based on a half-baked understanding of the complexities of the Railways. The wholesale management overhaul was done to combat “departmentalism”, a term coined to describe the wars between departments. The Ministry is still floundering on the new rules regarding recruitment, seniority, and management of key positions. There are justified apprehensions that the hitherto passionate, albeit sectarian loyalty to one’s own department will be replaced by a management ethos that is neutral but apathetic and lacking in commitment. To put it bluntly, the sweeping changes effected by this government are not only unmerited but are retrogressive and have severely harmed the Railways. The tragedy for the nation is that the damage is perpetual.

The Railway ministry’s fixation with radical structural change and the spectacular, high-profile projects has deflected managerial focus from the core areas associated with safety such as maintenance and replacement of worn-out assets, timely replenishment of safety category staff, narrowing the unholy gap between precept and practice, modernizing safety infrastructure. The horrendous three-train collision at Balasore last week that jolted the entire country, is the possible consequence of this dispensation’s cavalier approach to the humdrum but critical, routine activities that are vital for enhancing safety. 

As a former member of IR’s workforce, I understand the public disquiet and criticism in the wake of such a horrific disaster. Though much needs to be done to restore the faith, it should not blind us to the contribution of IR to the public good. Although it is a tactless thing to say at this bleak time, I think we should reckon with the grim reality that in our imperfect world, disasters will happen however hard we try to prevent them. What we have in our power is the capacity to face up squarely to our mistakes, because every calamity tells us what went wrong and what needs attention to avoid recurrence. Acting proactively to address the glitches that an accident like the Balasore train tragedy exposed, is the way forward to a safer Indian Railways.

The true measure of an organization or a government is not judged by how it comports itself when the going is good but by its response to a crisis.  What for me has been the most disappointing in the current dispensation’s handling of the greatest train disaster in decades is its brazen decision to rope in the CBI to investigate the accident, the first time ever. The public announcement was made the day after the accident and was accompanied by an obvious falsehood. The world knows that the CBI reports only to the Big Two, and yet we were told that the railway minister had ordered the CBI inquiry.

It is significant that soon after the accident, the railway minister and the railway professionals acknowledged that prima facie, the accident was probably the consequence of a technical signaling failure. But around the same time, the social media users were spinning another tale, bringing a communal dimension into the mix. Tweeting an image of a white building with a dome next to the accident site that looked like a mosque (but is an ISKcon temple), along with the words “just saying yesterday was Friday”, the trolls hinted that Muslims were involved in the accident. Within a few hours, this mischievous, speculative hypothesis received official endorsement with the appointment of the CBI as the inquiring agency thereby clearly pointing to sabotage as a proximate cause. The induction of the CBI is an obvious and obscene attempt to muddy the waters and prejudge the cause of the accident.

Throughout IR’s history, there have been three levels of inquiry into train accidents – the departmental, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) and the Judicial (under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952).  This government, not known for being honourable even in the best of times by bringing in law enforcement  agencies to investigate train accidents for which they are ill-equipped,  has severely dented the Railways’ image of integrity.

Let me end with a prediction: Just like what happened in the aftermath of the 2016 Indore-Patna train accident near Kanpur which resulted in 150 deaths and was investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), thereby raising the bogey of sabotage but concluded with the NIA ultimately issuing no chargesheet, the CBI inquiry into the three-train collision at Balasore will insinuate that the proximate cause of the accident was sabotage! That’s the clean chit that this government is desperate for!

Mathew John
(The writer is a former civil servant. The views are personal)