All third class

The railway ministry has been told whats wrong. The Passenger Amenities Committee that has been set up and is headed by the well-known painter Subhaprasanna from,where else,Kolkata pointed out that train windows are frequently hazy,robbing a train journey of that sense of connection to the countryside that should be so central to the experience. It shouldnt take a painters eye to see the obvious; but then,in a sector as unreformed and sarkari as the railways,what do you expect?

But it is another recommendation that deserves highlighting. Specially designed luxury coaches, we are told,would be a good idea,as long as they are exclusively meant for foreign travellers. This sums up what is wrong with much thinking,both about tourism and about railway and similar infrastructure in India. The first assumption is that,for tourism,somehow creating parallel systems that foreigners should use an odd 21st century version of the old socialist dollar shops,setting up parallel costs at heritage sites,and so on,will somehow make tourists feel more comfortable. That is aside from the fact that,in practice,those running the systems find them impossible to run easily,as is the case with so many silly regulations.

And then there is what it implies for how we think about infrastructure in India. Nothing good,we seem to believe,can be given to us,because we will somehow spoil it. Indian tourists who can afford to pay shouldnt be allowed near the special coaches,because they will manage to ruin the experience. This flies in the face of what we have learnt over the last few decades; most recently the case of the Delhi Metro showed that the urban Indian is as capable of respecting the value of infrastructure when she recognises its worth as anyone else and,indeed,of creating a civic culture around it. Maybe what holds back excellence in customer service and user-friendly infrastructure in railways,for example,isnt just sarkari incompetence. We should not underestimate the lack of trust for the Indian citizen the customer that goes with that.