Probably even the British, who introduced Railways in India would not have done what the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government is doing. The number of Sleeper and General class coaches in various trains are surreptitiously and ominously disappearing accompanied by a simultaneous increase in Air Conditioned coaches.
In the characteristic style of the BJP government, there was no discussion or debate on this move by the Indian Railways either in the Parliament or outside of it. In a democratic country where a majority of the population cannot afford to travel in Air Conditioned (AC) coaches, and if anyone needs proof of this just look at the conditions in which people travel in General class.
No weak-hearted person would dare to enter these coaches where one may have to struggle at the gate to get inside the coach. One can imagine the fate of a sick, disabled, old, child or woman trying to travel in these coaches. Why would people travel in such a condition except for it is their compulsion? The fact is most of the people travelling in Sleeper and General classes simply cannot spend any more money on travel. The difference between the cost of a General class and a Sleeper class is about 60-70% but the quality of travel comfort is markedly different.
The cost of a Third AC class ticket is about 140-160 per cent that of the Sleeper class and is about the same as a non-AC ordinary bus fare for the same distance. Hence for a General class or Sleeper class passenger, even an ordinary bus journey is prohibitively costly. Some of the trains called AC Expresses, Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and the newly introduced Vande Bharats have only AC coaches which a large majority of the population cannot afford. This implies that closing the option of Sleeper and General classes for ordinary passengers in India is a violation of the fundamental right of the citizen Article 19(d) of the Constitution, 'to move freely throughout the territory of India.'
In the age of Artificial Intelligence, why should it not be possible to dynamically adjust the number of coaches in accordance with the demand? Keeping the same number of total coaches the number of General class or AC coaches could be according to the number of passengers willing to travel that particular day in different classes.
The idea of having different classes for travel is itself incongruous with the idea of democracy. Furthermore, in AC coaches the passengers also get the benefit of bedsheets, blankets and pillows and in some trains, the cost of tickets covers food as well. This exhibits the class bias of policymakers. Otherwise, logical reasoning would favour the idea of more benefits for poorer passengers rather than the rich. After all, as part of the Public Distribution System food grains are given to the poor, not the rich.
Similarly, blankets and clothes are ordinarily distributed to the poor. For the General class passengers, the Railway authorities may not even bother about the cleanliness of their toilets or the availability of water on a long-distance journey. The class of the society which is granted the benefit of reservation on the basis of socio-economic-educational backwardness and untouchability has to travel in the Indian Railways unreserved and the elite, who are critical of the system of caste-based reservation, obtain reservation of berths in coaches sometimes using a quota which is disbursed by the Railway Head Offices. Obviously a system of privileges for the elite prevails in the Indian Railways.
The manner in which various services like catering, sanitation and even ticket checking have been privatised, a government-run company Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation has been allowed to run several private trains, the Tejas Express from Delhi to Lucknow being the first one introduced in 2019, the infrastructure at railway stations are being upgraded there is a clear indication of things moving in the direction of privatisation. With increasing privatisation the Indian Railways will further become inaccessible to the poor or the poor would not be able to afford most services like the paid waiting lounges, etc.
This raises a basic question of the purpose of the existence of railways or any means of transportation for that matter. Transportation and communication are two additional basic needs of human beings to the commonly acknowledged food, clothing and shelter. These are fundamental rights as they are required for life with dignity. When the Aam Admi Party government made bus travel for women free, it was not doing a favour to the people. Food, Clothing, Shelter, Transportation and Communication should be free in any society in addition to education and health care.
The idea of free travel, at least for women, is now gaining popularity. Hopefully, it’ll extend to the entire population and will cover all means of transportation. A truly Socialist government will make all public transportation free and most transportation will be public. People should hardly need to use private vehicles. Railways will be the most preferred means of long-distance travel from the point of view of contributing least to global warming and for the same reason for global warming air travel will phase out. However, for medical emergencies, some provision of air travel could be kept.
The tendency of the BJP government to commercialise must be checked. These policies are meant to only favour private corporations of various kinds at the cost of the common citizens of this country. The increasing privatisation restricts the democratic rights of the citizens.
An ordinary passenger cannot complain against services rendered by private entities compared to when they were handled by the Indian Railways. For example, the cost of food is fixed by the Indian Railways authorities but the private contractor hires contract employees, who argue in favour of protection of their interest when selling items at more than the prescribed cost.
In a similar manner, all services have been compromised and the passenger is left to the mercy of more and more private players. This trend has to be reversed if we want the rights of citizens to be protected. The rulers of the BJP government think they are lording over this vast infrastructure of Indian Railways and are free to convert every service into a profit-making business venture. Indian Railways serves a social purpose and is the lifeline of India so far as the movement of ordinary citizens is concerned. The rulers have no business to make a business out of it.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of ETV Bharat)
