Deny, Deny, Deny: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's Reign of No Accountability

Just two days after Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw's well-photographed visit to the Railway Board's Prayagraj 'war room' to survey train operations amid a surge in passengers during the ongoing Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh, a stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station left at least 18 people dead.As news of the stampede spread through social media, the railway officials strongly denied the incident, claiming that “media persons should not pay attention to rumour”. The Ministry of Railways even released videos and images of the station, about two hours after the mishap, to seemingly suggest a state of normalcy.Delhi Police eventually confirmed the worst with statements to the media, acknowledging that passengers at the New Delhi Railway Station had indeed met with a "stampede". It was only the next day, 16 February, that the Railways issued an official statement on the “unfortunate incident of stampede” at the New Delhi station.Between denial and admission, a number of unsettling details of the tragedy have emerged — from disturbing Images of porters carrying bodies on carts to heartfelt stories of passengers helping the injured.In the face of viral videos and images of the stampede, the Railways cut a sorry figure with its initial attempts at denying the incident, inviting allegations of a cover-up for incompetence which led to the deaths.'Shouted for Help, But No One Came': 18 Dead in Delhi Railway Station StampedeThe stampede at the New Delhi station has left former rail officials livid and anguished. The Delhi Division of the Railways has decades of experience in crowd control. Every year, it handles a surge of passengers on high-volume festivals like Holi, Diwali, Chhath, and Durga Puja. Then, how did a deadly stampede happen this time? On 15 February, 18 passengers who had entrusted the Railways with their safety by purchasing train tickets perished on Saturday. And yet, the national transporter refuses to learn from mishaps or take any responsibility whatsoever for the deaths.In the wake of the stampede, Vaishnaw’s inspection of the Prayagraj ‘war room' has turned out to be a cosmetic exercise. His oft-repeated claims of technology-enabled monitoring of rail operations have arguably collapsed. A case in point is that over 2,600 tickets were sold in a span of just two hours between 4 pm and 6 pm on the day of the stampede, a fact that curiously failed to alarm the officials in charge of CCTV monitoring and station management. The New Delhi stampede is not the first rail-related stampede in recent years. It is preceded by stampedes at:Maharashtra's Bandra Terminus (leaving many injured in 2024)Elphinstone Road station (that killed 29 in 2017) in Mumbai Allahabad station in Uttar Pradesh (that left 23 dead during Kumbh 2013)Santragachi (leaving two dead in 2018) in West BengalVaishnaw has been at helm of the Ministry of Railways since 2021. In another three months, he will beat the record of his predecessor, Piyush Goyal, who stayed in office for three years and 307 days. With the longest tenure as the head of the Railways in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, Vaishnaw has had ample time to formulate and project his “vision for the Railways” for new India. Vaishnaw's reign has nevertheless been punctuated by a series of deadly rail mishaps.The Balasore triple train collision in Odisha on 2 June 2023 left at least 290 dead with rumours of a mass cover-up amid allegations of a much higher death toll. Despite the momentary outrage over the Balasore mass tragedy, a total of seven rail mishaps took place in 2023. On 29 October, two passenger trains collided in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram, resulting in at least 14 deaths. The next year, the Darjeeling train collision on 17 June killed at least nine. The Gonda train accident on 4 November 2024, in Uttar Pradesh that killed four came as yet another reminder of the Railways' failure to learn from past mistakes.Balasore Accident & Indian Railways: A Chequered System That Compromises SafetyThere has also been a spate of train derailments under the minister's watch, though no loss of lives was reported in some of these derailments. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a previous report had pointed out that derailments caused 69 percent of rail mishaps during 2017-21. Indeed, the CAG report preceded Vaishnaw becoming the rail minister. The audit for his current tenure from the top auditor is still awaited.Even as the list of rail mishaps keeps growing, Vaishnaw's policy of denial has remained constant. Retired railway officials unofficially rue the present ministry's refusal to take accountability for mishaps. The accidents in Balasore, Darjeeling, and other train mishaps, for example, had been blamed on faulty loco pilots (who themself perished in the accidents). There is a systemic passing of the proverbial buck after every mishap and more often than not, the responsibility for the accidents falls on some junior staffer, blamed for not following the manuals.In the case of Delhi, the Railways has constituted a high-level probe committee which consists of its own officials instead of ordering a judicial inquiry or a probe by the Commission for Rail Safety which comes under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The fear is that the Railways will once more find scapegoats for the New Delhi stampede.The Modi government's impetus on inaugurating shiny news projects to bolster its claims of 'Amrit Kaal' includes "branded" trains like Vande Bharat. These trains may appear aspirational symbols of new India but in reality, they fail to cater to the mass need for transportation. Under the veneer of these 'branded' trains lies the contrasting surge in 'non-AC', 'general category' passengers across the country.Vaishnaw fiercely pushed for the rollout of the Vande Bharat trains that have a higher ticket cost. PM Modi had been flagging off Vande Bharat trains at regular intervals. Many private manufacturers are partnering with the Railways to produce Vande Bharat coaches.Rail officials have nevertheless admitted to a surge in non-AC passengers. Between April and October 2023, officials said that the non-AC passengers constituted 95.3 percent of the total passenger traffic. While Vande Bharat trains fetch higher revenues for the Railways, the swelling crowds across stations demand normal passenger trains they can afford.And yet, repeated scenes of overcrowding at railway stations and the surge in long-distance buses clearly indicate the Railways' emphasis on profiteering rather than being the provider of public service it had once been envisaged to be.The highways around Delhi now buzz with buses carrying passengers over long-distance rides to cities in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and other states.When asked why people are choosing buses over trains for long-distance travel, the railway minister defers: “We’re undertaking works in Railways which had not been done in the last 60 years.”This statement is meant to dismiss any critique regarding the functioning of the Railways. Even officials down the pecking order have now started parroting them off to silence questions and evade public scrutiny.Former Railway Board officials, nevertheless, acknowledge that the shpiel about undertaking works left undone in the last 60 years is just another smokescreen. To win the trust of the passengers and the Railways, the least that the railway minister can do is to fix accountability for mishaps. Such accountability needs to start with at least the Divisional Railways Manager level officials who should account for the loss of lives on rail premises and tracks. After all, in India, railway ministers have stepped down (or at least offered to) for less.Heads Must Roll in Railways for Mishaps; Top-heavy Bureaucracy Hampers Agility(The author is a senior Delhi-based journalist, who has covered the Ministry of Railways for 15 years. This is an opinion piece. All views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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Deny, Deny, Deny: Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's Policy of No Accountability

The Railway Ministry tried to suggest a state of normalcy hours after a stampede killed 18 at the New Delhi station.

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