Not so fast, Minister

Amidst the mangled bogeys at Samlaya railway station the explanation is unsurprisingly neat. Recent train accidents have set the drill. For ...

Amidst the mangled bogeys at Samlaya railway station the explanation is unsurprisingly neat. Recent train accidents have set the drill. For Thursday8217;s death of 18 passengers, blame human error. It8217;s the signalman this time, it has been decreed, who is responsible for the collision. Last time, four months ago, when a collision near Pathankot left 40 dead, it was the station master who was to blame. With 8220;human error8221; such a handy excuse for ghastly rail accidents, then, it is little wonder that Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav can saunter off into diversionary controversies 8212; and trivialise his ministry8217;s incompetence and negligence by whipping up a political controversy. In Laloo Yadav8217;s personalised narrative, victimhood at the site of the accident has been accentuated on his person. He says goons acting on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi8217;s instructions attacked him, and he wants all the instruments at the Centre8217;s disposal to be harnessed to secure justice.

No so fast, Minister. Samlaya cannot so quickly be made yesterday8217;s news. The railway ministry cannot hasten through the paces of blame calling, and return to politics as usual. The ministry is quite enamoured of its argument that every single day it carries more than 11 million passengers on their way, that given these volumes, its accident rate is spectacularly low 8212; that compared to the accident rate on India8217;s roads, railways is visibly safer. This is a false argument. When an accident takes place, the most important assessment must be whether it was preventable. The collision at Samlaya is virtually a replay of the Gaisal crash six years ago. Then, as in so many collisions since, the simple point was made that had easily obtainable anti-collision devices been in place, accident could have been averted. There is little reason to believe that an inquiry into Thursday8217;s collision will be any different.

Laloo Yadav is now a veteran of two railway budgets. In each great emphasis was placed on modernisation and safety programmes. Samlaya interrogates that emphasis. It exposes the hollowness of budget day grandeur. For this, the buck has to stop with him.