Lallu's magical politics

Much has been written about how Railway Minister, Lallu Prasad Yadav has "successfully" managed the Indian Railways. Invited to several elite management institutes, he has been asked to address aspiring management 'gurus' on the miraculous features of "Lallunomics". Fiscal conservatives have marvelled at how a perennially loss-making organization has been supposedly 'turned around'.
Of course, it is another matter that the Lallu "miracle" took place during a period when the economy was growing at a rate close to 10%, and virtually all major PSUs showed similiar buoyancy in revenues. But for India's aspiring MBAs and RNI (resident non-Indian) journalists, all that mattered about Lallu's management of the railways was that he had not approached the government for additional funds for development. For this single achievement, he was lauded as a 'pioneer', an 'economic wizard', the very paragon of 'good government'.
But those who turned him into the financial world's latest icon were hardly railway users themselves. For if they were, they might have noticed the extraordinary frustration that the ordinary Indian rail user must experience each time he or she has to travel without the benefit of an advance booking - especially at a large Indian railway station for the first time.
Not that high-fliers ever need to take a train. And if they ever did, they would probably have some peon make the booking well in advance for a first class seat on a special train such as a Shatabdi or Rajdhani.
Although the Indian Railways has made considerable progress in allowing Internet users to make advance bookings, for those who don't own computers, or must travel at the last moment (due to family or other emergencies, or contingencies), there is simply no option but to experience what millions of Indians experience every day when they attempt to purchase an unreserved second class seat or try to make a same day reservation for a train.
First, it is almost impossible to figure out where to go first. There are numerous ticket counters, but at the capital's main New Delhi station, the confused traveller wil be surprised to discover that more than half the booking windows are actually not functioning. Several only open after 11 am even though many more trains leave between 6 am and 9 am than between 11 am and 2 pm. Then there are booking windows that are supposed to be open, but the agents disappear for long intervals even as desperate travellers wait in long queues hoping to be served before it is time for their train to leave. There are supposed to be special counters for women but no one ever seems to know precisely where they are. And of course, god forbid if the booking area might provide any travel information. So after a long wait, when our inexperienced traveller reaches the head of a booking queue and asks a few questions, he/she might wail have to stand in line again - this time at an overcrowded enquiry counter.
But in a station as large as New Delhi, there is a strange lack of enquiry counters. Not even CCTVs or automated kiosks where a more enterprising or savvy traveller could make an attempt at self-service. Information screens are few and far between, and are typically located in areas where there are no booking counters, and booking agents are not supposed to waste their time telling passengers about which train they might be able to take. So the unfamiliar traveller must inevitably run from one area to another - first to figure out which trains are available, and then to the booking counter that provides the booking. Needless to say, there are separate areas for second class and first class booking. And then there are separate areas for same day computerized booking, and separate counters for booking on Jan Shatabdis and other "special" trains. Couldn't get the seat you wanted - too bad - you may well have to stand in line at a different window for the alternative.
And then some trains require the super-fast surcharge - but there is no easy way of finding out which is a "super fast" train. Apparently, any train that travels faster than 50 kmph is labelled a "super-fast". But make the mistake of not buying a ticket with a "super-fast" surcharge and innocently board the next available train and you might be staring at an unwitting fine.
So even as our "honorable" minister was being feted throughout the world by the Indian diaspora for his "revolution" in the Indian railways, the average traveller (many of them from Lallu's own Bihar) were spending tense hours in long pushy queues at the enquiry booth, and then some more at a booking counter (where the clerk might suddenly disappear for an unscheduled tea-break), or worse, he or she may end up with a ticket for a train that may have already left by the time it was procured and our harried traveller had made it to the right platform.
Try to outsmart the system by checking the information boards directly (instead of going to the enquiry counter) and you may be rudely surprised that someone had mis-entered the arrival time as the departure time. You see a train heading your way leaving at noon and proceed to the booking window only to be curtly informed that your train is actually leaving 4 hours later, and the booking for it won't open till two hours before departure.
It is little wonder that so many Indians have given up trying to travel by train without adequate advance booking.
But in some cases, Lallu has actually wanted it that way. When the broad-gauge line between Mangalore and Bangalore was opened with much ministerial fanfare, hopeful travellers were shocked to discover that the railways was running just one night train. Since it would be absurd to take the night train for a 3 hour journey to Mysore or Hassan, most travellers were compelled to stick to the bus. Travellers throughout India have complained that even when broad gauge lines are completed, none or few conveniently-timed day trains are launched for the comfort of short or medium distance travellers.
Crores are spent on converting metre gauge tracks to broad gauge, but the full benefit of the conversion remains unrealized because the railways refuses to run day trains even on routes where there is persistent and adequate demand. Suspicions that the private-bus lobby has bribed the railway ministry are then bound to gain currency. After fodder gate and numerous other scams during his long stint in what was a notoriously mismanaged Bihar, Lallu can hardly escape rumors of corruption in the railways.
As several rail users have observed, other than launching several well-needed trains to his home state of Bihar, Lallu's tenure has not seen any signficant addition to the country's list of inter-city trains. It was his predecessor - Nitish Kumar who introduced the highly popular Jan Shatabdi trains, and despite considerable demand for many more such trains, Lallu has been largely dismissive of such popular demands.
Instead, the Indian public is about to be snookered into even more crowded sleeper and three-tier compartments where the already narrow side berths are being modified to include a third berth. As it is, corruption in the ranks of the ticket checkers leads to several unauthorized passengers in the sleeper compartments. But Lallu's "reforms" (by stealth) will ensure that public convenience will be further reduced in the coming years, not enhanced.
In fact, a closer examination of the railways under Lallu will reveal that there has been very little internal technological progress in the past five years. This is because Lallu has invested very little in high technology or advanced training for railways engineers and managers. India's railway education institutes are wedded to an utterly outdated curriculum. In the railways education faculties, there are virtually no PhDs, and just a handful of post-graduates. There are no research facilities where top railway scientists and engineers can engage in cutting edge research on aspects such as new materials, new suspension systems, machines that can speed up track-laying, track-testing and maintenance.
When it comes to signalling systems, much of India's network still remains obsolete. Old signalling systems are being replaced at a snail's pace; and only after enormous presure did Lallu announce a project to modernize toilet waste disposal.
Every small technological upgrade in the railways takes years to implement, and it invariably involves expensive private contractors (often multinationals). Given that the Indian railways transports roughly 20 million passengers each day, one would think that it could afford to invest in at least one IIT-standard university geared exclusively towards research and advanced training for all forms of mass transit. But Lallu has never displayed that sort of farsightedness or advanced vision.
Yet, there have been many myths about Lallu's "genius".
Intelligent and progressive Indians ought not be so easily fooled. For a nation that has just recently joined the moon club, it should be quite obvious that Lallu's railway "miracle" was nothing more than a village leader's attempt to balance a budget. Lallu might well make a decent petty accountant, and even be a great stand-up comic - but a great rail minister he is most certainly NOT. Compared to the scientists who run India's space program, Lallu is but an "anpadh dehati" - a rabble rouser who knows how to play politics and juggle a budget.
But that has nothing to do do with being able to modernize India's enormous but technologically-lagging railways.
India's railways is of great service to the masses, transporting them from one corner of the country to the other. As it stands, it carries more passengers each day than any other national raiways (almost five times as many as China). But there should be no illusions about how far India still needs to go in terms of average train speed, frequencies of day trains, travel comfort and ease of booking.
In parts of Europe (between major city pairs), travellers have the convenience of trains that run hourly (and sometimes even on the half-hour). Purchasing a ticket is fast and convenient. Most trains have excellent suspension so that the journey is quiet and comfortable. Cleanliness and punctuality are a norm.
But so far, the Indian railway system has been mainly geared towards meeting the needs of long-distance travellers who book their journeys in advance, and don't really mind the delays as long as they have a sleeper booking. Compared to what is available in Africa or South America, that may well be a big achievement.
But the nation has every right to expect much more.
And it will take much more than a Lallu to take the Indian Railways to the next level. India's Railways is actually in need of a revolution (of the scientific and technological type) - its just NOT the Lallu kind of pseudo-revolution.