The Hindu : Politicising a tragedy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 12, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Politicising a tragedy

THE UGLY ZEST with which a section of the political class has been seeking to lend political colour to the human tragedy caused by the derailment of the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express at Rafiganj (in Bihar) shows how such persons can stoop so low. While the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, pointedly displayed his mastery of technical detail (to announce that the accident was due to sabotage), his arch rival on the Bihar political scene, Laloo Prasad Yadav, too was unwilling to leave it (as to whether the removal of fish-plates between two tracks could have led to the tragedy) to a body of experts. The two leaders did not let go an opportunity to snipe at each other and revealed how callous they could turn towards a tragedy of such dimension. With at least a hundred men, women and children dead and several times that number injured, the need of the hour was to send relief to the victims. The behaviour of these two leaders — Mr. Kumar and Mr. Yadav jibing at each other — beamed across the country by television channels even while jawans from the Army base were devoting all their energy towards retrieving those caught in the derailed coaches, was simply despicable.

The derailment as such raises a set of questions that the Railway administration needs to answer. The possibility of sabotage can be just one among the several causes that could have led to the tragedy on Monday night and it is legitimate to expect the Railway Minister and those around him (in the political as well as in the Railway establishment) to leave it to those with technical knowledge to establish the cause of the accident. However, some questions will continue to nag the rail users given the certainty with which the sabotage theory is peddled. The basis of this is the story of a fish-plate and the four nuts having been removed and placed adjacent the track a few metres before the bridge where the train derailed. It is indeed frightening to even think that an accident of such magnitude could be caused by simply removing four nuts (that fasten the foot-long fish-plate to the rails) and that it takes not more than a few minutes to do this. The log book of train movement in the section (between Rafiganj and Moghulsarai) establishes the passage of several trains, at regular intervals, until 40 minutes before the ill-fated Rajdhani Express ran off the track. The very thought that sabotage of such a nature could be carried out on the tracks (in just 40 minutes with only a few spanners needed to remove four nuts) and that too on a sector with such heavy traffic is mind-boggling.

It is for these reasons that it becomes imperative for the Railway Minister and his officers to refrain from scoring partisan political points (it is clear in this case that Mr. Kumar's story about sabotage is aimed at showing the RJD Government in bad light) and prejudice the inquiry in the process. It is important that such factors as the lack of proper maintenance of the coaches, the condition of the tracks and the bridge are looked into as possible causes for the accident. It is a fact that a number of bridges and thousands of metres of railway track across the country, laid as they were at least a hundred years ago when these places were brought under the rail network, need replacement. The Railway Ministry will also have to acknowledge the shortage of manpower (specifically in the operations side), due to which such areas as mechanical over-hauling of coaches and their maintenance receive short shrift. This, indeed, is the fallout of the policy of "matching surrender" by which the Railway administration had abolished a considerable number of posts in the lower grades to accommodate personnel in the administrative wings. The recent decision to carve out seven new zones is a case in point. The consequence of such reckless decisions is bound to be felt on the maintenance of coaches, tracks and ballast. A little more prudence on such issues could have averted the tragedy at Rafiganj and will go a long way in making rail travel safer. Meanwhile, the least that Mr. Kumar could do is to turn a little more sensitive to the human tragedy and refrain from making such a tragedy into an occasion to snipe at his political rivals.

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