Train journeys have increasingly become a part of my life. My ancient mother had been ailing in an ashram on the banks of the Beas River in Punjab, and I would try to visit her as often as I could. But she was 91 and age finally caught up with her. She passed away one night after living a life that I expect was better than that of most of my countrymen.
Visiting her meant lots of journeys and before I knew it I was addicted to the railway. I can now make a reservation sitting at home on my computer, pay with a credit card, and print my own e-ticket. If I don't have a printer they deliver it in 24 hours. It is quite wonderful when something outstanding emerges from our public sector. Soon, I will be able to track my train's progress on my computer or on a screen at the railway station via a satellite system.
In the early days of the Internet I predicted that computers would only take off in India when computer prices dropped to Rs 10,000 and when you could buy a railway ticket on the Net. Well, both have happened! And so, a revolution is underway and it is likely to be more profound than the mobile phone. The minister of HRD is, of course, oblivious of this because he is too busy dividing Indians. He doesn't realise that India's real divide is not caste but the English language and computers. Instead of bridging this divide and empowering young Indians he is on his casteist power trip.
The electronic ticket has left an army of reservation clerks unhappy. My friend used to complain that he couldn't get a ticket on the Tamil Nadu Express during the holidays without paying a bribe of Rs 500 per ticket, which also explains why the Railway unions have opposed e-tickets for five years. But e-tickets are only a small part of a genuine renaissance in the Indian Railways. The bigger story is in freight. In the past two years Railways didn't mindlessly raise freight charges as in the past. When oil prices rose they became suddenly competitive with trucks. They also allowed more load to be carried in wagons, which hurt another mafia of railway employees. The biggest change, however, is a modern mindset that is resulting in all sorts of public-private partnerships and in efficiencies which have transformed the finances of this behemoth. The private sector is now investing in its own wagons, readying to launch container trains, building new lines to ports and freight terminals.
Do we give the minister, Lalu Prasad, credit for this transformation? He took over when the Railways were tottering towards bankruptcy, and if they had sunk we would have blamed him for “Biharing the railways”. So, we should give him credit for their revival. Lalu's success lies not in what he did, but what he did not do. He surrounded himself with good people—Sudhir Kumar is one of them—and he left them alone. This was also Ronald Reagan's secret of success. Many great managers have led from the back.
The Indian Railways sell 4.8 billion tickets a year. This works out to 4.4 journeys per person. We are thus a nation on the move. When Indians are unhappy, they just pack up and go. Caste ties loosen when you move, and this is our great safety valve against regional inequality. Believe it or not, even Bihar will catch up one day.