Loss of Pride

The suspension of a senior railway officer for alleged dereliction of duty in providing accommodation to VVIP’s speaks volumes about the spinelessness of the bureaucratic setup in the organization. An organization where seniors, who leave no stone unturned in pulling up their juniors and prostrating before their superiors almost all of the time, can’t be expected to take a stand before the powers that be as they are busy making an impression for purported future gains. The most unfortunate part is that the juniors, when they become seniors continue to behave in the same fashion thereby indicating that perhaps something is deeply wrong in the core of the organization.

It is really unfortunate that the organization regards “mard” as those who pounce on their juniors and lay flat before their seniors. Shouting at and humiliating subordinates is a much practiced trait of those regarded as bold and brave by the system. Such bold and brave officers exhibit their braveness through suspensions and harassment of their subordinate officers and staff in an organization that is HR driven and also projects itself as HR centric. A management that accepts even shit from above, but not even suggestions from below is what we have evolved into. I find it hilarious to the extent of being ridiculous.

A recent incident in which a train driver committed suicide by jumping off a running train, perhaps for fear of being removed from service as he marginally passed the starter at a train stopping station is indicative of the magnitude of fear psychosis present in the system at almost all levels. The misplaced emphasis not on giving infrastructural inputs or taking care of HR, but on following ridiculous norms of punishment whenever an untoward incident takes place is a strategy neither designed, nor suited for development and growth in the twenty-first century. The fact that successive generations of management at the apex level have failed in their avowed duty of providing leadership to a rudderless organization thereby bringing the railways to such a pass is neither acceptable nor pardonable.

Such incidents that are indicative of a total lack of concern for HR would make any self respecting officer hang his head in shame. I am however certain that even these will fail to jolt the railway bureaucracy out of its self centric slumber.

Such incidents make me momentarily lose pride in the organization I work for and today is one such day.