FIVE DAYS after the twin blasts shook Hyderabad, the central government (GoI) went through its annual chore of reading out a joke called the Indian Railway Budget. The uniqueness of this budget is it spells a comedy and a tragedy at the same time, what with the amount of distress it is indirectly bringing to all Indian States. Here's a look at the miracle as it unfolds in various sheets of newspaper this week.
Basking under the glory of being the largest public sector employer in the largest democracy, yet defying the existence of the Center's comptroller (CAG), Indian railways is the most loss making public enterprise that has never been debated or even considered for decentralization or privatization.
Public loss is Private gain?
Caring least for the massive loss Indian railways continues to make year-on-year and by offering Indian railways as a market agnostic cheap travel option, various central governments seem to have successfully used the public funded Indian railways to achieve multifarious goals like north to south migration, creation of nationwide employment deficits and socio-economic stress factors (like inflation, demand for rapid electrification and demand for urbanization) that could be turned into election manifestos of national parties - especially because national parties are well equipped to encash such factors into votes.
A closer look could reveal that financial loss is just a meager loss that Indian railways could be causing to the Indian union.
The Terror Angle
While alleged to be splurging our moneys and imposing Hindi on all non-Hindi peoples of India, Indian railways is also posing a serious threat to the nation's internal security by acting as an unchecked and unbiased carrier of innocent people and terrorists alike. Operating on such a vast juxtaposition of diverse territories together called India, yet operated by the central government alone comes with its own limitations in vigilance during daily operations. In the name of being an enabler to ensure people's right to move and settle anywhere in India, the railways have acted as an express channel for terror transport especially because of this lack of vigilance - which explains why so few terror attacks it is itself exposed to!!
With the debate around National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) gaining traction again in the wake of these blasts, an important question to be raised will have to be a combination of the suspicion over a centralized Indian railways being the terror enabler and the federal angle that some States are approaching NCTC with: Is the biggest key to Indian terror in the hands of Indian railways, and should counter-terrorism not start by decentralizing it? Is the NCTC destined to fail as long as the Indian railways continues to be a centrally run show?
Basking under the glory of being the largest public sector employer in the largest democracy, yet defying the existence of the Center's comptroller (CAG), Indian railways is the most loss making public enterprise that has never been debated or even considered for decentralization or privatization.
Public loss is Private gain?
Caring least for the massive loss Indian railways continues to make year-on-year and by offering Indian railways as a market agnostic cheap travel option, various central governments seem to have successfully used the public funded Indian railways to achieve multifarious goals like north to south migration, creation of nationwide employment deficits and socio-economic stress factors (like inflation, demand for rapid electrification and demand for urbanization) that could be turned into election manifestos of national parties - especially because national parties are well equipped to encash such factors into votes.
A closer look could reveal that financial loss is just a meager loss that Indian railways could be causing to the Indian union.
The Terror Angle
While alleged to be splurging our moneys and imposing Hindi on all non-Hindi peoples of India, Indian railways is also posing a serious threat to the nation's internal security by acting as an unchecked and unbiased carrier of innocent people and terrorists alike. Operating on such a vast juxtaposition of diverse territories together called India, yet operated by the central government alone comes with its own limitations in vigilance during daily operations. In the name of being an enabler to ensure people's right to move and settle anywhere in India, the railways have acted as an express channel for terror transport especially because of this lack of vigilance - which explains why so few terror attacks it is itself exposed to!!
With the debate around National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) gaining traction again in the wake of these blasts, an important question to be raised will have to be a combination of the suspicion over a centralized Indian railways being the terror enabler and the federal angle that some States are approaching NCTC with: Is the biggest key to Indian terror in the hands of Indian railways, and should counter-terrorism not start by decentralizing it? Is the NCTC destined to fail as long as the Indian railways continues to be a centrally run show?
