O P I N I O N S

guest column
Railways, the trophy wife of coalition politics
Railways, which comes with its vast resources and a budget running into thousands of crores to be spent the way the minister may deem fit, has been sacrificed at the altar of obtaining coalition loyalty.
RC Acharya
From time immemorial marriages have been one of the most powerful instruments for sealing political alliances. To gain a foothold in the Indian Ocean, Charles II, King of England, married the Portugese princess Catherine de Braganza, for she brought with her the seven islands of Bombaim (which later became Bombay) as part of her dowry.

fifty fifty
To be happy and ‘gay’ ever after
For gay couples to even hold hands in public in India can be considered a criminal offence, whilst in countries like the UK diversity of every kind is acceptable.
Kishwar Desai
It was almost as momentous as when Prince William married Kate Middleton —only this wedding could not take place in Westminster Abbey, but in a town hall and in front of a much smaller number of guests, just past midnight.

Modi wears the velvet glove of development
Instead of the BJP’s pet theme of mandir, in his Chandigarh rally the only temples Modi promised to erect are that of modernisation. It now serves him well to sheath the iron fist of Hindu nationalism in the velvet glove of progress.
Raj Chengappa
In Jammu, where folklore is part of political campaign speeches, people talked about how the weather gods obliged when Narendra Modi wanted to visit the Vaishno Devi shrine last week. While it had rained heavily the previous night, when morning came, the skies cleared dramatically, permitting Modi to pay obeisance to the deity. People recalled that when Sonia Gandhi had made a similar effort several years ago, the skies misted over and she had to cancel her trip.

guest column
Railways, the trophy wife of coalition politics
Railways, which comes with its vast resources and a budget running into thousands of crores to be spent the way the minister may deem fit, has been sacrificed at the altar of obtaining coalition loyalty.
RC Acharya

From time immemorial marriages have been one of the most powerful instruments for sealing political alliances. To gain a foothold in the Indian Ocean, Charles II, King of England, married the Portugese princess Catherine de Braganza, for she brought with her the seven islands of Bombaim (which later became Bombay) as part of her dowry.

At the last count there was a backlog of 368 incomplete railway projects.

Closer home, we have the story of Mughal scion Akbar marrying the daughter of King Bharmal of Amer, Princess Jodha, to gain a lasting peace with the fierce Rajput clans.

In the era of coalition politics, which has been witnessed in India for the past two decades, the ‘princess’ much in demand has unfortunately been the Ministry of Railways, which comes loaded with a dowry of its vast resources and a budget of its own running into thousands of crores to be spent in any way the Railway Minister may deem fit.

Unfortunately, this princess so sacrificed at the altar of obtaining ‘coalition loyalty’ has been subject more to gross abuse, tantamount to ‘rape’, than being treated as a ‘queen’.

Over the past 22 years the Railways has had to tie the knot with no less 11 ‘husbands’! Starting with the inimitable George Fernandes, a string of political heavy weights, viz. Janeshwar Mishra, Jaffer Sharief, Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar, Ram Naik, Mamata Banerjee, once again Nitish Kumar, Lalu Yadav, again Mamata Banerjee, Dinesh Trivedi, have lorded over Rail Bhavan mostly to win friends and influence people with their unique initiatives that have proved disastrous for the nation’s economic life.

Rather late in the day, realising the folly of handing over such an important portfolio to one of its innumerable coalition partners, the Congress appointed Pawan Kumar Bansal, who unfortunately failed to keep freeloaders at bay, and finally Mallikarjun Kharge was brought in with hardly any time to carry out any meaningful long term planning.

The inimitable Jaffer Sharif with his famous ‘Project Unigauge’ had set the trend, putting the Railways firmly on the path to financial ruin with scores of unviable projects finding their way into the Railway Board’s ‘Pink Book’, a master list of commitments made in the Lok Sabha during the various Railway Budgets.

Brushing aside the issue of financially viability, Mamata Banerjee chose to call such projects ‘socially desirable’, where cost was of no consideration, never mind the populist role that such projects played in swaying voters, of course at the cost of the Railway’s financial health.

At the last count there was a backlog of 368 projects with a whopping price tag of Rs 1,78,216 crore, for which only Rs 11,250 crore was provided in the current year’s budget. At this rate it will take more than 15 years for these to be completed. In the meantime, new demands are bound to crop up.

In spite of promises made by every new Railway Minister to review these projects — a very large number of which are unviable — to prioritise and even jettison some of them by consulting stakeholders, nothing much has materialised.

On top of this, to Nitish Kumar goes the credit of total disruption of the command and control structure of the Railways by creating overnight no less than seven new zones, taking the tally from a manageable nine to 16 and adding in the process avoidable overheads.

Understandably, financial profligacy of the past two decades has taken its toll, resulting in the Railways recording the worst ever ‘operating ratio’ of 95 per cent in 2011-12.

With a distinct possibility of the forthcoming elections once again throwing up a fractured mandate, the Railways is bound to continue to be a ministry much in demand, and may be offered to one of the crucial coalition partners as a ‘bride’ for another five years of unbridled rape. Not a very rosy future for the nation’s economic lifeline.

The writer is a former Member of the Railway Board.

fifty fifty
To be happy and ‘gay’ ever after
For gay couples to even hold hands in public in India can be considered a criminal offence, whilst in countries like the UK diversity of every kind is acceptable.
Kishwar Desai

Gay couple Andrew Wale (L) and Neil Allard pose with the register as they marry in the first same-sex wedding at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, southern England, on Saturday. Reuters

It was almost as momentous as when Prince William married Kate Middleton —only this wedding could not take place in Westminster Abbey, but in a town hall and in front of a much smaller number of guests, just past midnight. However, there were many like us who stayed up to watch it on television in London as March 29 onwards gay couples were allowed to get married in the UK. So we were not just curious but also appreciative of the years of struggle by the gay community to get the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Perhaps the importance of ‘getting married’ when the institution of marriage itself is being discounted with the spectacular growth of ‘singletons’ in the West might surprise many. Yet, this particular union is a memorable milestone for those who have been denied it for so long. Indeed, for the gay community, many of who claim to be as ‘traditional’ as the most conservative heterosexuals, the ceremony this week was the culmination of a hard-won battle.

Of course, the move to legalise gay marriage by Prime Minister David Cameron had met with resistance from many, especially those among his own party cadres who lurch towards liberal attitudes only when pushed by the younger generation to which Cameron belongs. Even so, the UK is only the 15th country in the world where gay marriage is legal. Other countries such as Russia have recently reinforced their anti-gay marriage stance, and some like India remain stuck with old fashioned laws.

Perhaps in India the very thought of a gay couple getting married openly would still be anathema. After all, most young people are usually not allowed free choice in selecting a life partner even in heterosexual relationships. You can imagine the mayhem if anyone suggested a homosexual marriage, and that too in a public ceremony! It is still a fact that so called open-minded people turn into repressive individuals on this issue, maintaining that there is something deeply unacceptable about two men or two women wanting to spend their life together.

Many of these outdated ideas are, of course, supported by religious institutions. In the UK, too, that sadly still remains a hurdle. Which is why the first gay marriage could not be celebrated in a church, and it had to be a civil ceremony. But some hope has emerged here as well. As the photographs of one of the first couples to tie the knot were flashed around the world, a few voices of approval were heard from within the Church of England. The Bishop of Salisbury for instance has already stated he thinks it is better for people to get married as opposed to just living together. And this in his view applies equally to homosexual and heterosexual couples. He has said that in his opinion gay marriages are also an embodiment of a ‘commitment’ that is ‘faithful, loving and lifelong’.

But the very fact that this issue is now being debated in Church, and will perhaps be discussed at other religious forums as well, is good news for campaigners who have waited for a long time to see this day. Of course it is unlikely to happen anytime soon, but there are broadminded religious leaders who would like to see less hypocrisy on these matters.

Of course, in India this kind of acceptance will take even longer to arrive. Apart from the mindset and societal attitudes that the gay community has to face, the recent court judgment has created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity. For gay couples to even hold hands or kiss in public can be considered a criminal offence, whilst in countries like the UK diversity of every kind is acceptable. And now with gay marriages being allowed, the final normalising of these relationships has taken place.

And that is probably why there is such a rush for gay couples to pledge their lives to each other in public ceremonies. For so long they have battled ostracism and have been made to feel as though they are somehow inferior to their heterosexual peers. Now through a public wedding, as one of the couples stated, they finally felt they had ‘society’s approval’. Even though in the past, the UK had allowed ‘civil partnerships’ which were very akin to marriage, many gay couples did not feel they had the same rights as heterosexual couples, and were made to feel unequal or discriminated against. Now especially for those in long-term gay relationships this week was an important milestone, and a seal of acceptance that being gay was also ‘normal’.