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Journalism of Courage
Ram Vilas Paswan has the most amazing capacity for taking punishment. Almost the very day he was sworn in as Minister for Railways, he made it patently clear that it was to be his personal fiefdom. He calmly faced national outrage when it became obvious that he intended to lay new track according to his own political imperatives, not national concerns. He caught some more flak when he converted the wayside Hajipur station into a divisional headquarters and started creating tens of thousands of new jobs that the Railways were not really in a position to pay for. More recently, he rendered himself notorious by campaigning on behalf of the government employees8217; unions in the fracas over the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations. Now, he intends to make travellers subsidise his largesse, though he had ruled out fare hikes while dealing with the unions. At the same time, it transpires that he has created a whole cadre of personal staff, paid for by the Railways, and that he has run up an unprecedented entertainment bill, which he expects the Railways to foot. A barrage of flak is obviously in the offing. But will it help Paswan mend his ways? Going by precedent, it will be completely irrelevant. It will only increase his stature as the man who is sublimely immune to criticism.
Only the courageous can hope to achieve a credibility crisis greater than C.K. Jaffer Sharief8217;s, but Paswan seems to be managing just fine. There are no questionable deals blotting his copybook so far, but his policies have a certain cumulative effect, and it remains to be seen whether his fiefdom will be able to support his excesses for long. Especially when it is becoming abundantly clear to the people that it is they who will have to finally foot the bill. Every contract labourer that Paswan turns into a permanent employee is paid for by the taxpayer. So is every foot of rail that is laid where it is not required, and every train that brings ticketless rallyists to Delhi. Every member of Paswan8217;s unnecessarily large entourage is also subsidised by the taxpayer, from his personal assistants down to the gardener tending the rose-beds of his impressively refurbished official residence.
