It began as a tragedy, turned into a melodrama, and is now likely to end as a farce. It has already involved about 50 deaths the figure is bound to swell and all of them were avoidable. If only someone had taken care. The Tragedy: The recent railway accident in which the Amritsar-bound Howrah Express collided with the bogies of a derailed goods train near Jeonpura village in Fatehgarh Sahib district in Punjab. About two years ago, 220 people were killed only 22 km away from the spot in a similar accident almost at the same time of year. In fact, the same official chief engineer (Northern Railway) S.M. Singla, who was found to have been negligent by the then chief commissioner railway safety was in charge. Nobody took responsibility then, nor has anyone now. The irony is that lives are lost due to sheer negligence but somehow the heads never roll.The melodrama: It began when Union railway minister, Mamata Banerjee, was informed about the accident, which was soon after the tragedy. Instead of rushing to the accident site, she first decided to attend a political rally in Midnapore. Like most politicians, she obviously has her priorities laid out. She takes her politics much more seriously than her responsibilities as a Cabinet rank minister of the country. Upstaging the CPI-M from its bastion in West Bengal is so crucial for Mamata that even the dead can wait. Once she turned up 20 hours later she fretted and fumed in characteristic style, and began blaming everyone else, except herself. And who do you think should compete with Mamata? Who else, but her minister of state for Railways, Digvijay Singh, from the Samata, who arrived 18 hours late at the site of the accident. Then began the familiar farce: Mamata ordered the customary judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge (how many more of these does the country need?). To make up for her delayed appearance and salvage her sullied image, she chose to deploy her most potent weapon the resignation salvo. After all, barely two months ago, she had forced the mighty Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to retract and order a roll back on oil prices, by simply submitting a resignation letter. And, despite the colossal loss to the exchequer, it paid her political dividends. The Prime Minister had pleaded with her to withdraw her resignation then, he has done it again now. That time it cost the country about Rs 200 crore per month. The vulnerability of the NDA government, in giving in to her gimmicks, could cost the country much more in the future. Today her strategies are directed at the Left Front a rival of the NDA government at the Centre. If this farce continues, like Jayalalitha, she could tomorrow prove formidable for thosewho continue to spoil her. Resignation has been used as a political instrument to salvage one’s conscience by politicians in the past. Lal Bahadur Shastri used it effectively in the late fifties. Nitish Kumar, in the wake of the Gaisal disaster, felt compelled to step down. In Mamata’s case, the repeated use of this weapon, and the consequent attempt to appease her, has clearly blunted it.
