Some headlines from the past hour on
the Rail Budget 2016 are:
Rail
Budget growth-oriented, but revenue target will be a challenge, says industry -
Times of India
Rail
Budget gets a thumbs down on D-Street for fourth consecutive time - Economic
Times
Rail
Budget 2016: PwC says investment to be a challenge for Railway amid flat
traffic, high costs - Economic Times
Rail
Budget 2016: Railway-related stocks fall up to 10% on Dalal Street - Business
Today
Big
proposals, no fare hike: How Suresh Prabhu avoided the bitter pill in Rail Budget
2016 - Firstpost
On
Rail Budget day, Indian rupee hits new 30-month low at 68.72 vs US dollar -
Financial Express
These are just few from the lot of analytical
pieces written - taking sides based on the parameters taken into consideration
- but overall, it is a mixed bag with the obvious question - that asks - how -
a how that can unravel every good intention behind a Railway Budget that is
otherwise logical and future oriented.
The Rail Budget 2016 started on a
logical note - with no-nonsense announcements and proposals. In its initial
run, as Suresh Prabhu, the Rail Minister started presenting it, it sounded the
most logical Rail Budget in the recent times.
The budget began with more emphasis
on improving passenger services and amenities this year - something long
overdue - than announcing mindlessly new trains to appease votebanks - but in
the end, it came out to be pretty ambitious - and that is the whole point behind
raising questions - shadowing the positive senses.
The Rail Budget 2016 is passenger
centric, policy change centric and future centric that also intends to be 'work
culture change' centric. It, in fact, talks vehemently about it.
But given the sorry state of the
affairs at Indian Railways, we need to be sceptical. In fact, we need cynical
questions here.
Indian Railways is a mammoth
organization employing maximum number of people in the world's largest
democracy and claiming a robust outreach network in almost every part of
country barring the North-East. It is good that this strategically important
last mile connectivity is now a priority of the government. And so, Indian
Railways is the lifeline of the nation as the majority here still cannot afford
air-travel.
But Indian Railways is a corrupt and
defunct organization. Corruption, in fact, has percolated in every wing of its functioning
- from tickets checkers or TTEs travelling in trains to booking clerks duping
innocent people on ticket booking windows to its officials (in every hue)
sitting in its zonal offices to its headquarters in Delhi.
And this corruption is vivid and
variegated - from petty offences like TTEs illicitly pocketing money in trains
to senior level officers cornering big convenience money in freight handling to
big commission in projects.
Unless that culture is not corrected,
any attempt to take Indian Railways on a futuristic journey of course
correction is impossible.
So, whatever Mr. Suresh Prabhu
intends to do with his reformative tools, with newly proposed three freight corridors,
with no hike in passenger and freight fare to build on volume, with more and
more use of technology in enabling Railways to act more passenger customer friendly,
with ways to increase revenue, with plans to build infrastructure including
private collaboration, we need to keep in mind that it is about mindset change
- a mindset that travels through the floodgates of bribes and other modes of
illicit money.
The chronic corruption that has
infested every part and every appendage of the huge machinery that Indian
Railways is.
A mindset change is a long and tedious
process with no timeframe and with no guarantee of outcome. It may happen. It
may not happen. It becomes even more complicated when the 'mindset' is shaped
by corruption as is the case with Indian Railways.
And Mr. Suresh Prabhu is one of its
most prime examples. He is very active on Twitter. In fact, his alertness on
Twitter is an example for all other ministers to follow - but only as long as
it pleases him. He doesn't like to act on or respond to negative tweets.