From: Amit Kaushik [mailto:amit.edu@sb.nic.in]
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 10:34 AM
To: stoi@indiatimes.com
Cc: gurcharandas@vsnl.com
Subject: Wake up call

Sir,

Gurcharan Das (STOI March 24, 2002) has demonstrated how easy it is to be a management consultant--a few dramatic statements, some out of context facts, a facile prescription for reform, and voila! you have an instant remedy for all the ills of the Indian Railways!  As a Railwayman with fifteen years on the job, I am proud to work for an organisation which in a day moves more passengers across the country than Indian Airlines does in a full year.  An organisation which still carries more than half the total goods moved in the economy.  An organisation which maintains some of the highest levels of discipline amongst its ranks, in the face of mounting indiscipline in the rest of the country.  An organisation which serves as a lifeline to our country and our defence services, working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—a fact most people overlook-- because the trains never stop.

Yes, we are over-staffed, and yes, we could do with a little less political interference.  But no, Mr Das, we are not "utterly corrupt", and we are most certainly not as inefficient as you would have everyone believe.  It might
be relevant to recall that except for the last three or four years, after the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations and the beginning of coalition politics in the country (which has meant sanctioning
usually unviable railway projects in virtually every constituency), the Railways have always returned a surplus to the General Revenues, perhaps the only government undertaking to do so.

If you had cared to check your facts, you would have discovered that all the so-called "corporatised" railway systems you mentioned rely on very substantial government support to take care of uneconomic services.  (The
level of budgetary support provided by the Government of India is perhaps one of the lowest in the world.)  And that one of the most recent privatisation experiments--Railtrack in the UK--had to declare bankruptcy
because the infrastructure and the operating companies worked at cross purposes, a situation brought about by an emphasis only on their bottomlines.  Bringing in a CEO from a multinational detergent company is unlikely therefore to solve the problems we face today.

While many of us in the Railways disagree with the conclusions of Dr Rakesh Mohan, at least he did his research before making his recommendations.  Its a pity that the same cannot be said of the hatchet job run under your
byline.  Or is it that the principles of hard work, sincerity and integrity only apply to government organisations and not to media columnists?

Sincerely,

Amit Kaushik