Good Governance Should Not Be So Slippery

We are much more invested in deflecting blame than fixing the underlying problem. Inquiry committee findings are usually suppressed, a hangover of the colonial government

- Makarand R Paranjpae

Three weeks after the stampede on February 15, which killed at least 18 at the New Delhi station, a tiny news item mentions the transfer of three senior railway officers. The inquiry committee investigating the stampede is yet to submit its report. The authorities have denied any connection between these transfers and the stampede. However, the same news item states that the "ministry appears to have taken the incident very seriously, albeit quietly".

Herein lies the rub. Why are we so averse to taking responsibility and fixing accountability? Let us consider the history of our railways, one of the great marvels of engineering, management, human transportation—and employment. I agree that it would be uncharitable to call the Indian railways disaster-prone. But, as many experts readily admit, our safety record leaves much to be desired. The political fallout of this vulnerability has been significant.

We might recall that several railway ministers in India have resigned or offered to resign following railway accidents. The most notable was Lal Bahadur Shastri, who put in his papers in 1956 after two railway mishaps. The then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru accepted his resignation after the second of these accidents in which over 150 passengers died in a bridge collapse near Ariyalur, plunging the train carrying them to a watery grave. Shastri's reputation was saved; he went on to become India's second prime minister.

Much more recently, Nitish Kumar resigned in 1999 after the Gaisal train collision in West Bengal. The Avadh Assam Express and the Brahmaputra Mail collided, killing 290 people due to a signalling error. In 2017, after the Kaifiyat Express and Puri-Utkal Express derailment, railway minister Suresh Prabhu offered to resign. Prime Minister Narendra Modi let him go after asking him to wait a month.