Ten Years-An Assessment: Failure to Act on #KMG is Ticking Time Bomb for the Minister
Last 10 years saw #unprecedented investment by #Modi Government in to #IndianRailways and its #PSU-the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (#DFCCIL). This period also saw unprecedented thrust on reform and transformation.
The newly appointed #PrimeMinister in 2014, addressed the #Nation by expressing #condolences to the families who lost their members in the accident – “Train accident, 40 feared dead as Gorakhpurdham Express rams into goods train”. That day #GorakhdhamExpress was ‘misled’ or ‘misrouted’ to an occupied line and it rammed in to a stationary goods train at Chureb near Gorakhpur.
Few years before that, at #Harchandpur near #Raebareli, a train was misled in a loop while it was expected to keep running on main line – “Train accident, 5 dead, several injured as five coaches derail” – at least 7 died and 9 weere seriously injured.
Still a few years before that, when #NaMo was Chief Minister of #Gujarat, #SabarmatiExpress was misled in to an occupied line where a #container-train was standing – “17 passengers died and 80 were injured”.
Chureb was just a wake up call to the new government, that it was a system failure-not the first one but one which was occurring with alarming regularity as we explained above.
However, the last 10 years were punctuated by many #accidents, most notably, #Balasore, when #CoromandelExpress was wrongly routed in to a stationary iron ore train-an #accident which ended up involving four trains. It soon emerged that barely a month ago #MemberInfrastructure had written to all #GeneralManagers that five such ‘incidents’ had happened where trains were ‘misled’ to wrong tracks in just six months (i.e. when he wrote the letter). Balasore was shockingly 6th such accident. Soon #Ondagram happened.
So Let’s Assess What Happened in these 10 Years?
Politically speaking, the #government has given unprecedented #support to #railways. #Budgetary-support went up by almost a factor of 10, this shows the priority government assigned to the railways. Best of all is the fact that this support came with nil strings-it does not carry burden of dividend liability.
But Balasore opened can of worms-what has gone wrong?
In this lies the monumental #failure of the Ministers.
The Ministers and Their Men
Starting with #SadanandGowda who remained Minister for 166 days, #SureshPrabhu for almost 3 years, #PiyushGoyal for little under 4 years, and current Minister #AshwiniVaishnaw has completed nearly 3 years. Each came with their own thrust of #reform and #transformation. Except for Sadanand Gowda who barely had six months, all others worked with intention to shake #IndianRailways from its moribund culture and siloed working. #Money-taps were opened.
But as #Balasore indicated and this recent #tweet shows, something awefully went wrong.
#RailMinister Ashwini Vaishnaw in his recent interview with #Lallantop-deftly deflected many issues. However, we will revert on his interview soon as feedback from senior officials who have worked in senior positions is being compiled specifically on his Lallantop interview – “Ashwini Vaishnaw ने Pegasus, Railway Recruitment, 75 Vandr Bharat Trains पर क्या–क्या खुलासे किए!”
All the MInister’s Men
Seeing #political-leadership struggle despite pumping lot of money, we started a series which became famous as #KMG series. We compiled and distributed four volumes widely on request of our readers.
Sum and substance of these reports was:
Similar to Khan Market Gang (#KMG) of Lutyen’s Delhi, there is Khan Market Gang of All India Delhi Service (#AIDS) of Indian Railways. This #gang of self-seeking officers were a constant while #minister changed and #governments changed. The same set of people destroyed career of #Ministers of #UPA. These officers continued after 2014 in to #NDA under #NarendraModi. Failure to weed them out meant these #charlatans were handed bonanza of lakhs of crores every years with no strings attached.
#SureshPrabhu’s hunger for #transformation and #decentralisation led to appointment of several consultants and committees. His lack of attention span permitted likes of #SudheerKumar game him and create a #TransformationCell-which proved to be a nemesis of all vitals of railways, railway #safety, morale of leadership-except for ability to float mega #tenders. The transformation cell was structured as parallel universe-it was claimed to be a bubble with in #RailwayBoard in #RailBhawan.
With this transformation cell Sudheer Kumar was able to gain access to powers that be and play to the political gallery. Using this #Sudheer was able to push discredited #GajendraHaldea model for #Madhepura and #Marowrah. If one project that which calls for change of minister, it is that of greenfield #locomotive factory-which resulted in #diesel factory in Marowrah and #electric factory in Madhepura. Both happen to be in #LaluYadav’s home turf-arch political opponent of #BJP. Sudheer ‘forgot’ to tell Suresh Prabhu that no site survey was done for these factories.
We have been writing about these factories and will be giving a status soon in another article.
Soon, impact was seen, #Khatauli happened and it demonstrated how next to #RailBhawan, next to New Delhi colossal failure of systems happened (track was opened without permission and stoppage of traffic). This #accident destroyed career of Suresh Prabhu, while his successor Piyush Goyal went on to promote all principal contributors of the accident. #AlokKansal then Chief Track Engineer (#CTE), #NorthernRailway became laughing stock of #Mumbai on his antics and juvenile actions after promotion as General Manager. Piyush Goyal was scuttled by his advisors which included his appointees #BhuwanSoren and #AnujGupta. Bhuwan Soren was soon captured by the #KMG and he played in to their hands. Bhuwan’s shenanigans brought down fall of Piyush Goyal-who to be fair to him had invested lot of energy, with sincerity in understanding the problems and dynamics.
Then came #Bureaucrat-#Businessman-#Politician, Ashwini Vaishnaw. He has consistently enjoyed support of the Prime Minister. He brought in Sudheer Kumar out of retirement, as his #advisor for handling Net Zero project, though he never worked on it ever till he was thrown out of Rail Bhawan, but long after he inflicted body blow to Indian Railways. Decision to bring Sudheer has been body blow not just to the railways, but also is ticking time bomb for the officers, ministers and government who worked with him or signed his files. Blind faith in this chief anarchist will be undoing of Ashwini Vaishnaw-if not today, surely tomorrow. The timer is ticking and losses of #factories of #SudheerKumar are steadily climbing to astronomical figures. One day #PM will be informed of the damage #KMG of railways has done. Now no one has to do anything. All those who could have salvaged the situation are no more on the scene and wait patiently, counting each of these transgressions.
#SudheerKumar’s rise to power led to the dismantling of National Academy of Indian Railways (#NAIR), the parent #academy of all officers of IR, as well as the entire #engineering services. Despite government assurances that Railways would not be privatised and significant investments made annually, no #engineers has been recruited through #UPSC since 2019. The Minister, in interviews with Lallantop, emphasised the complexity of the railway system and railway engineering, yet the lack of engineer recruitment raises doubts about the Ministry’s commitment to #Safety and asset availability. The unwavering defence of Sudheer Kumar is puzzling to the supporters of the government, as his decisions have led Indian Railways down a path of ruin, with increasing costs of locomotives from Sudheer’s greenfield factories, each year. The Minister’s failure to acknowledge this reality is concerning and have serious consequences for the railway system.
In his interview – “Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Reviews WAG-12 Loco Hauling 1.5 km Long Double-Stack Container” – he has traveled quite some distance. As part of our #exposes on poor #technical competence of Sudheer Kumar, we explained basics of locomotion for the benefit of Minister and his team. We exposed #SudheerSense vs #ModiSense and how minister successively fell for Sudheer-Sense. Readers may see analysis of Sudheer Kumar’s autobiography and series on Sudheer Sense Vs Modi Sense.
We are happy that our effort brought out #AmritBharat and twin #WAG9 from #CLW. These two projects promptly featured in Mr #Vaishnaw’s interview with Lallantop – CLW’s twin WAG9 by minister’s own admission can tackle any kind of #traffic on any type of #territory, can he say the same for #WAG-12 locomotive which he endorsed and costs almost twice as much as twin #WAG-9 – “Ashwini Vaishnaw ने Pegasus, Railway Recruitment, 75 Vandr Bharat Trains पर क्या–क्या खुलासे किए!”
Other Shameful Failures
The dispensation also failed in addressing our exposes regarding officers conducting business on #IREPS. This lack of action has damaged the Minister’s #credibility on his #zero-tolerance for #Corruption claim. Not only were these officers not reprimanded, they were actually promoted, indicating a #protection of such individuals. The #Ondagram and #Balasore #accidents can be directly attributed to the #Minister, further highlighting his failure in empowering the railway’s field leadership.
As a leader, the #Minister should explain why he did not support competent officers, why he allowed #corrupt practices to continue unchecked, and why he promoted officers engaged in #business with IR. Out of #Vigilance-trimurti which derailed #VandeBharat project and destroyed career of many officers (including attack on the current #chairman of #TRAI) The retention of #RKRai on the government payroll, two years after retirement, the appointment of #AshokKumar as #CVO of #DOT, and #NaveenKumar as #director of #UPMetro despite lacking #experience in #electric-traction raise serious questions on intent. Was manipulating the system to discredit railway officers in order to promote #IRMS part of his agenda? Why was there a deliberate effort to conceal information regarding the #Tender for emotional intelligence testing?
Internal systems are wrecked, moreover, sad reality is that the #investments have largely been directed to tenders and works. The common man for whom #rail-transport is compulsion, is shoved in stinky toilets. More on this soon.. please wait..