The next rail budget is round the corner.
A commercial organization in
monopoly in a sellers market in a nation inhabited by over a thousand and three
hundred million should ideally have no reason to belie the expectations of its
clients as well as constituents. Yet it has successfully belied the expectations
of almost all it came in contact with during the last over three decades.
Where have we faulted and is
there a salvation?
Is it not sad that I, a true
railwayman to the core and fairly senior one at that have no expectations from
the ensuing budget, and there may be many more of the same variety. Having been
a silent witness to thirty three budgets in my career spanning as many years, I
have learnt not to nurture hopes from such annual rituals. A ritual is what the
budget has now become, a ritual that merely places the accounts of the current
and the forecast for the ensuing financial year on the table along with a few
sops for the public at large.
A budget is meant to be a
statement, a statement of the efficiency and purpose of an organization, of its
goals and aspirations and of a new vision or direction. A budget of a
commercial organization is expected to be a pointer of the direction that the
organization is expected to take in the coming year and therefore should
logically result in actionables that drive the organization to achieve the
figures and also the intent. Unfortunately it has generally never been so.
It is also true that for a
developing nation like ours and an organization like the railways, mere
announcement of intentions is not meant to be the end all. Intentions if not
backed by a solid commitment of purpose can only serve as a temporary shroud for
gains that can at best be short term in nature.
The convenient lack of clarity on
whether we are a commercial organization or the sarkar itself has been the bane
of this monolith, almost since the time the nation came on its own. An archaic
and bloated bureaucracy, the nine verticals of which are often at war with each
other would always find it difficult to deliver what the nation aspires for. Yet
its sheer inability to restructure itself on commercial lines from the present
departmental one has indeed been the reason behind the organization not being
able to live up to national aspirations. The recommendations submitted on many
occasions by eminent economists have been gathering dust in an organization
that desperately needs to modernize and corporatize in the national interest.
It is also necessary that our
processes, both for taking decisions as well as entering into contracts are
simplified and brought at least at par with other governmental systems in the
country, if not on total commercial lines. Yet, on the contrary, the over bloated
bureaucracy that rarely differentiates between deliverance and remaining busy continues
to make mountains out of molehills.
If only the ensuing budget is not
merely a statement of figures and a few announcements, but instead a statement
of avowed objectives and time frames thereof backed by a resolve to take all
necessary steps to achieve the same, the greatness of this organization would
indeed be redeemed.
If only wishes were
horses...................
