One of the major colonial contributions to modern India is the railways. Since the pre-independence era, the Indian Railways stood (and ran) as a symbol that promised to be the engines of growth and prosperity for a vastly poor country. However, sadly no other organization has been as severely exploited as the Indian Railways since our celebrated independence. Regional favoritism and political exploitation has so far done significant (and perhaps, irreparable) damages to one of the world’s greatest public sector enterprise. The railways that crisscrosses the length and breadth of the nation like veins and arteries, as quoted by the fired minister during his budget presentation, is unquestionably under serious financial crisis. Even just increasing the passenger fares may not seem to be enough now. In the successive and recurring process of pleasing prospective voters (or a section of it), the Indian Railways had to keep on adding burden on its aging wheels, year after year. And in the course, there was never given any visionary scope for sustainable development. Now, it’s high time to protect the Indian Railways from being running down to the bottom under our “honorable” railway ministry dominated by unrealistic sectional politics. What we need today is perhaps a full corporatization of the railways; if not necessarily privatization. But certainly and most importantly, we need its full depoliticalization.
