Chhapra Local

The train carrying the two ministers reached Srinagar. While an entire army of rail officials was waiting for Digvijay, Nitish arrived as virtually an anonymous passenger. Somewhere deep down it must have hurt. By 2001, Nitish was back in Rail Bhavan, having replaced Mamata Banerjee.

The tempations of the rail ministry are not restricted to superficial trappings 8212; the convoy of vehicles and welcome bands that makes the Indian Railways the last of the legatees of the Raj. Rather, it is a state within a state, an empire within an empire.

Check the numbers. The government of India employs 3.6 million people; of these 1.6 million are in the railways, the world8217;s single largest employer. Indian Railways earns Rs 40,000 crore every year, spends Rs 44,000 crore. It is India8217;s biggest patronage machine masquerading as a business corporation.

Indian Railways is broadly untouched by reform, oblivious to modern accountability practices 8212; and remarkably feudal in its, well, persona. In a sense, these are are the very attributes that define governance in Bihar. The state and the ministry, then, are made for each other. Meet the Ashwini Twins, one economic, the other political.

India8217;s railway network is a statistical treasure. It covers 63,028 route kilometres, has 6,853 stations in both big cities and one-horse, single-platform towns. It fundamentally touches people8217;s lives, running 8,520 passenger trains daily, carrying 4.8 billion passengers a year. It8217;s annual salary and pension bill alone is Rs 18,841 crore.

In poor, opportunity-scarce parts of the country such as Bihar 8212; or even neighbouring Bengal see accompanying story 8212; a railway job is an iron ricebowl, the location of a railway facility can change the fortunes of a town. That8217;s what makes the railway ministry such a prize for eastern India8217;s politicians.

A hundred years ago, it used to be said, 8216;8216;What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.8217;8217; This may no longer be true. In the case of the railways though, Bihar certainly learnt contemporary lessons from Bengal.

It was in 1982-84, Indira Gandhi8217;s final term, that A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury effectively converted the railways into an instrument of patronage. It was joked that Malda, Ghani Khan8217;s constituency, was the 8216;8216;capital of Indian Railways8217;8217;.

With the Mandalisation of Indian politics and the de-industrialisation of India8217;s east, Bihari satraps perfected the formula. Paswan once explained the obsession with becoming 8216;8216;train mantri8217;8217;: 8216;8216;This is one ministry where one gets to be in direct touch with the people. I am a man of the masses.8217;8217;

Grand words; but there is more to it. 8216;8216;No other ministry,8217;8217; points out Patna-based sociologist Hetukar Jha, 8216;8216;gives the opportunity to personally oblige as many people. As rail minister one can create a large and permanent base of loyalists.8217;8217;

RAIL patronage often lends itself to competitive politics. Take the 2002 controversy surrounding the creation of a new zone based in Hajipur, Paswan8217;s constituency. Nitish and Paswan have a running feud in claiming credit for the creation of the East Central Railway ECR. It was sanctioned in Paswan8217;s term and implemented in Nitish8217;s.

To be fair, Nitish adopted a pan-Bihar, as opposed to constituency-specific, approach. In the run up to the 2000 state election, he sought to use the railways as the engine for the 8216;8216;development of Bihar8217;8217;, a local vikas purush on broad gauge, if you like.

With 96 new trains, 76 halt stations, three mega-bridges, 30 road overbridges and extensive gauge conversion, Nitish sought to use the railways to give Bihar8217;s economy the big push. 8216;8216;We had a proactive approach. We worked around the hurdles and tried to implement things that seemed impossible.8217;8217; Nitish remembers.

What this actually meant was Nitish bypassed and overruled the Planning Commission and the Railway Board in pushing through plans of his liking. In his tenure, railway projects worth Rs 6,347 crore were sanctioned for Bihar.

Even so, given Bihar8217;s intense caste dynamics, it is not development projects but personal favours that call the shots. Here too the rail ministry offers limitless possibilities. ECR sources say during Nitish8217;s tenure roughly 300 people were appointed to railway zones outside Bihar. During Paswan8217;s time it was probably higher.

8216;8216;There are many vacancies that are filled by the general manager at the zonal level,8217;8217; says a senior railway official, 8216;8216;by having an obliging GM, the minister can easily have his way.8217;8217; As minister, Paswan also earned himself the sobriquet of 8216;8216;Pass-wan8217;8217; for the felicity with which he distributed free rail passes.

Paswan8217;s creation of the ECR zone, with the HQ in his borough of Hajipur, was probably the most crucial decision ever taken by a Bihari rail minister. Subsequently, the GM8217;s powers were enhanced by Nitish.

An official says, 8216;8216;Recruitments of Group C and D, casual and contract labourers, allotment of stalls on the platform, licences to booking agents, tenders up to Rs 25 crore, finalising estimates up to Rs 50 crore are all under the GM now.8217;8217;

This means, far from the watchful eye of the Railway Board, the zone has become an autonomous unit, left to the devices of whoever is Bihar8217;s incumbent railway minister. Projects worth Rs 10,000 crore are underway in the ECR. Just do your sums.

New projects mean new loyalists for the minister 8212; and they come from all castes and classes. First, there are the rail contractors, often muscle mobilisers too in Bihar, commanding brigades of goons. They are invaluable at election time.

Suraj Bhan Singh was one such contractor. He flourished under Nitish, won contracts worth crores. On the eve of the recent election, he moved to Ram Vilas Paswan8217;s LJP and won from Balia.

Next comes the proletariat. Thirty-three percent of the budget of any new project goes into labour costs. Then there is the long list of material suppliers, real estate owners, transporters, you name it.

8216;8216;As a rail minister, one can oblige virtually anyone,8217;8217; says P.K. Sinha, once an ally of Nitish8217;s, now an adversary, 8216;8216;it has a health wing, engineering wing, catering wing. From cook to dhobi, a rail minister can grant anyone8217;s wish.8217;8217;

No wonder, after some show of reluctance, Laloo was quite happy to take charge as railway minister. No wonder Paswan, who wanted the job, was seething. In Bihar, life is a gravy train, old chum.

With Bhavna Vij-Aurora