(AN OPEN LETTER TO THE HON’BLE MINISTER OF RAILWAYS)
Dear Shri Piyush Goyal,
It pains me to pen down this letter, which celebrates the first nail in your new coffin.
Did we hear of corruption scandals when,
- Delhi Metro gets delivered – stretch after stretch,
- Sardar Patel Statue was commissioned
- Delhi Meerut expressway was commissioned
- Ujjwala Scheme, Skill India, Ayushman, the list goes on and on……..
NO, but when Train 18 is made, we have the news “Train 18 under vigilance scanner”[1]. No amount of course correction by you will now make similar headlines! The damage has been done. The original team who made it has been systematically dispersed, as if the railway system always knew what to do! It never knew and still does not. There is no road map for scaling it up! I hear of a plan on paper, but there is nothing to back up the plan.
As an insider, I vouch that the problem with railway management is not financial corruption, but moral corruption, which the public oversight mechanisms (vigilance, audit, RTI, courts, CBI) have no way of dealing with.
The railway bureaucracy has taken down many well-intentioned Ministers (i.e., Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nitish, Dinesh Trivedi, Suresh Prabhu), and you are next. The only ones who left a mark were Lalu Prasad or Mamta, who never relied on the railway bureaucracy. The ones with whom you deal with today were the cream which was skinned off well before the Civil Services established its sample space for selection. What they are capable of is well recorded in ‘Yes Minister’, and this need not be repeated.
Coming back to Train 18. This is just a Rs 100 crore project. How much corruption could it involve… 50%, 20%, 10%, 0%! Let us calculate the figures and quantify the loss to the national exchequer! On the other hand, what did the phenomenon of Train 18 achieve, or was capable of achieving! Please take your pick and do a cost-benefit analysis (financial or social). I am sure we would not be able to come up with different answers, no matter how hard one tries. With the files now in the possession of vigilance, I wonder how many excuses have been created once again for the railway bureaucracy not to deliver.
Why am I concerned! At least 200-300 senior public officials pass through my classes every year for discussions on Public Procurement and Contract Management. And they have some very similar question – Why are Railways not showing signs of progress? When will we have a High-Speed Train? When will it comparable to Chinese railways? When will we have Airport like Railway stations? What did Lalu do differently that there was a turnaround? I kept telling them to work hard working, capable, and honest individuals, who should manage exercising discretion (you are trusted servant of the government) and take fast decisions (which firmly capture your view). An honest decision never got punished, and the like. But after today, I would have to moderate my pitch and argue — better safe than sorry; a ship in the harbor never sank; look honest whether you are honest or not; “Chalta Hai” and the like.
The thought keeps coming back to me – “Albert Pinto ko gussa kyon ata hai! Nahi ana Chaiya!” I see Kejriwal thinking being celebrated, rather than Modi’s or Gadhkari’s.
With kind regards,
Swapnil Garg, Ex Railway Officer
A rat who abandoned the sinking Ship (before it was too late)
Associate Professor (Strategic Management)
IIM, Indore
[1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/train-18-under-vigilance-scanner-files-taken-away/articleshow/69591998.cms
Swapnil Garg's home on the WWW 
Well said Swapnil.More power to your elbow.
Very well written article. Train 18 is being pulled down for no reason. It should on the other hand have been celebrated at national level. Instead every one involved is methodically being harassed for no apparent reason.
Dear Swapnil,
I have no opinion on Train 18. But you wrote: “ I kept telling them to work hard working, capable, and honest individuals, who should manage exercising discretion (you are trusted servant of the government) and take fast decisions (which firmly capture your view). “
Being hard working, capable, honest etc are desirable qualities but these are not contractile variables. Hence you cannot put these in a management control system. I am sure you know of enough case studies on how networking, nepotism and patron systems work. So asking people to be hard working etc are little more than platitudes.
Humans are humans, full of imperfections.
Vigilance must be having reasons/source information to take files of the project. Writing blog is not going to serve any useful purpose. It is better to confirm and/or inform authentic info from/to RB Vigilance, CVC and/or CBI.
Incidentally, please take note of my email sent on 05/06/2019.
Vigilance took file as per a written directive received from an in-service railway officer.
I agree with you that writing blog is not going to serve any useful purpose.