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EDITORIALS  Great Train Robber
The sooner Paswan's reckless rule of Rail Bhavan ends, the
better.
It is not without reason that Ram Vilas Paswan's 16 months in Rail Bhavan have earned
him the nickname "ghoshna mantri" (minister for announcements). He has
rushed into unviable projects, even diverting funds earmarked for safety facilities and
passenger amenities. He has legitimised ticketless travel by telling officials that
political rallyists who hitch rides "should not be harassed". Ticketless travel
is particularly rampant in Hajipur, Paswan's constituency in Bihar. Local Janata Dal
workers have virtually stopped buying tickets and seem to simply hijack a train when they
need to travel. In September, they took over a train in Uttar Pradesh -- displacing bona
fide passengers, including some MPs. Paswan's personal staff comprises 74 people. His food
expenses -- the railways cater to even his personal parties -- amount to Rs 3 lakh a
month.
Indeed, the folklore around Paswan is never-ending. It would also have been trivial had
it not impinged on the future of the railways and the safety of the one crore Indians who
commute by trains each day. In sum, Paswan's "new train a day" policy has had
"a major accident a month" consequence. He has launched new schemes worth Rs
30,000 crore but sanctioned only Rs 400 crore for them in this year's budget. His farcical
negotiations with labour unions led to his ministry's wage increment doubling to Rs 6,500
crore. Some day, Paswan will leave the Railway Ministry -- but he will leave it bleeding.
True, he is not the first minister to resort to such recklessness. Past railway ministers
like Kamalapati Tripathi and C.K. Jaffer Sharief, were also accused of narrow vision and
promoting ethical flexibility. Yet, precedent is never a justification; Paswan's argument
that the ministry is obliged to patronise his Dalit Sena is not tenable. It is time the
prime minister put a curb on such profligacy and made an example of Paswan by relocating
him. Alternatively, the ghoshna mantri's gravy train can be allowed to chug along to its
next disaster.
Slippery Slope to Nowhere
 The ailing Indian economy can
no longer afford its political dinosaurs.
The current slanging match between Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and his predecessor
and former colleague Manmohan Singh is an interesting side-show of the troubled
co-existence between the United Front (UF) and the Congress. Singh has charged Chidambaram
with being "indecisive", and pointed fingers at the continuing stagnation in
industry and exports. In his reply, Chidambaram has a few "works in progress" as
evidence of his decisiveness. However, on the main issue of a slowdown in industrial
production and export, the finance minister had no convincing answer. Instead, he has
sought to score a brownie point by reminding Singh how badly the fiscal deficit targets
had slipped when he was in charge.
Politics hardly being an extension of a debating society, Chidambaram should understand
that the mounting fears over falling industrial production and shrinking exports are
grounded in reality. The industrial growth estimate of five per cent at the end of the
first half of the current fiscal is unsatisfactory. There has to be a turnaround in export
growth, which was negative in June. The real interest rate is high enough to prohibit
investment. The fiscal policy is also in a shambles with customs and excise revenue
collections well below the budget expectations, and the Government's expenditure going
through the roof because of additional subsidies and salary payments. The bubble of
sustained low inflation may burst as the full impact of such state munificence is felt on
the price index. Left to himself, Chidambaram is a committed reformer but he has opted for
membership of a club of old-fashioned socialists. His UF colleagues refuse to alter their
mindset of overextending the state regardless of its capability. Therefore, the question
that precedes any strategy of recovery is: can India afford these dinosaurs? |
