One by one national assets are being sold. The latest master stroke of the Modi government is the privatisation of the Indian Railways. On July 1, 2020 the Railway Ministry announced that 151 trains in 109 pairs of routes will be operated by private sectors. The private sector will invest Rs 30,000 crores. Only the driver and guard will be the railway employees, all other employees will be of the private company, who is operating the train. The private companies are free to procure train and locomotives from any source of its choice. If that is so then what will happen to the railway production units. The private train operations will begin by April, 2023. Once the private entities start operating the trains just like in private airlines, public travelling in the private train would have to pay for preferred seats, extra baggage and on-board services, etc. Railways has given the private train operators the freedom to fix the fare to be charged from the passengers.

Immediately after the announcement, as usual the ‘bhakths’ started welcoming the decision of the government by saying that “fares in private trains will be competitive, introduction of private players would ensure that the trains are available on demand, fare in private train will be competitive and private entity will ensure punctuality.” Unfortunately, in our country the main stream of the Media instead of speaking the truth without fear has been reduced to being drum-beaters of the present government. The government continues its loyalty to the interests of the corporate sector and the common people’s interest are always buried.

Last year the government took a decision that the Indian Railways will hive off all its seven production units and associated workshops like ICF Perambur, RCF Kapurthula, Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli into a corporation called Indian Railways Roll Stocking Company. All the production units are functioning efficiently, even then the government wants to convert these production units into PSUs, so that it can be sold out.

Let us see the reactions of some of the major political parties on the Railway Privatisation. D Raja, general secretary of CPI in a statement has said: “The Railways is not the only sector Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is handing over to the corporates. The government has opened the floodgate for the private sector to take over coal mine, bank, defence, oil, insurance, electricity, telecom, space and atomic energy sectors. Any private entity investing Rs 30,000 crore will expect a huge profit from its investment resulting in huge increase in the ticket fare. Train which is the common man's transport will go beyond his reach”. He alleged that “the BJP government does not have any concern for the common people. The government decision will take away the dream of the Indian youth, including those who belong to the socially and economically downtrodden sections to get a railway Job.”

The CPI(M) polit bureau has said: “The Railway is a public service and not a profit-generating enterprise. Such privatisation undermines the basic of self-reliant economy. Contrary to the claim that this will boost job generation, past experience has shown that it will result in a huge loss creating insecurity for the employees of the Railways.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said: “The Railways are the life line for the poor and the government is taking it away from them.”

The Central Trade Unions including AITUC, HMS, CITU and the Independent Federations like AIDEF and AIBEA also opposed the move of the government and was critical about the government move. Raja Sridhar, vice-president of AIRF reacted that “this is a beginning of total privatisation of the Railways. Prime Minister Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat had stated in a conclave that on the National Highways, private transports are running, on the sky, private airlines are flying, if it is so then why on the railway track private players should not operate, why should the government control what goes on the top of the track.”

One of the arguments being given by the government for privatisation is that during the year 2018-19, 8.85 crore passengers were in waiting list and Indian Railways was able to provide only 16 per cent reservation out of these waiting list passengers, and hence for capacity augmentation private players are permitted to operate the Railways. But what is the fact? Railways have increased 5.35 crore seats, out of these 70 per cent is in AC Coaches and 30 per cent was only left for the Sleeper Coaches. The Government is not taking care of the common man's need. It is aiming only to earn profit.

On July 17. 2019 Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had a meeting with the Railway Coach Manufacturers and told them Railways required 2,150 train sets. The Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, has been manufacturing Train-18 Coaches @ Rs 98 crores with 160 km speed. It was meeting all the required specifications. The prime minister himself changed the name from Train-18 to ‘Vande Bharat’. This was the real ‘Make in India’, but now the 45 Train-18 Order given to ICF was stopped by the Railway Board. In the ‘Tejas Train’ which is being operated by private sector through IRCTC between Delhi and Lucknow, the ticket fare is more by Rs 700 to Rs 900. The running time is only 10 minutes less and one stoppage extra.

In the same train the dynamic fare goes upto Rs 4,700. At present for 1,000 km, the Railways are charging from Rs700 to Rs 900, for the same distance the private players will be charging Rs 2,200. The passenger has to shoulder this load. Let us see what type of job has been created by the private Tejas Train. The lady employees are punished for the simple reason that their facial makeup was not upto the mark. These employees have to work 18 hours for a salary of Rs 15,000. Therefore, we cannot accept privatisation of Indian Railways.

Immediately after the announcement of the Railways to hand over 109 routes to the private sector, on July 2, 2020 the Ministry of Railways issued an order in the name of rationalisation of expenditure which says that there will be a freezing on creation of new posts except for safety, surrender the newly created posts if recruitment has not taken place against those posts, surrender 50 per cent of the existing vacancies. The axe of privatisation has now fallen on the Railways. Railways are national assets which belong to the people of the country who are the tax payers.

Binoy Viswam, Rajya Sabha MP from the CPI has written a Letter to the prime minister urging him to withdraw the decision of the government. He has appealed in his letter that “there is no dispute that the Indian Railways is in need of greater investment and updating. However, as a vital public service that connects people of the country, its privatisation is not a solution. The government should increase spending in the railway sector and implement effective solution that does not depend on the sale of national assets. The lives and livelihood of millions of employees of Railways depend on your action. I therefore urge you to withdraw the decision and invest in the improvement of the Railways without privatising it.”

India's most-respected Railwayman E Sridharan in an interview to the Outlook Magazine said: “Apart from IRCTC, I don't see any one coming forward to run train. There are too many uncertainties. Two types of fare and two types of trains will create confusion. Private players will find it difficult to work with the Railways, and abandon it midway. It's a foolish idea bound to fail.”

Responding to the decision of the government Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary of AIRF stated that the AIRF will protest against the government's decision to privatise part of the Railway operations. AIRF states train passengers will be hit the most in case private companies run the train, and punch to rope for the protest. All this is wishful thinking. Railways has not been able to profitably run even the Tejas Train. Then break-even occupancy for these trains is 70 per cent, but it has not been more than 40-50 per cent on an average. So why a private company would put their money in a loss-making business. He further stated that we are creating a platform, where the general public would also been involved and a massive protest would be launched at grass root level.”

Guman Singh, president of the NFIR said: “While going in for privatisation, the government will destroy the Railways and make travelling costlier. We out rightly condemn the government's move. After discussing the issue with our central members, we would launch protest against it.”

The public transport system whether it is State Road Transport Corporation or the Indian Railways are meant for the common man of the country. How can we allow these public service organisations to be destroyed? In countries like UK where the Railways have been privatised during the year 1990, people are now fed up with the private Railways and are demanding nationalisation of the Railways. The present government has failed to discuss such a major decision either with its own workforce or in Parliament. No public discussion has taken place.

At present the government is telling that only five per cent of the Railways is privatised, which means the camel is now allowed to enter its head inside the tent and then slowly it will occupy the entire tent namely the Indian Railways. What will be the future of the 13 lakh railway employees? Of the vacant posts 50 per cent are abolished. With this the reservation for various socially and economically downtrodden communities in the Railway jobs also has gone. The major casualty of privatisation will be job opportunities, job security and reservation in jobs. Of course, the Railways will run away from the common man’s reach. The trade unions of Railways have to come to the street and fight against the evil design of the government. The entire trade union movement of the country and the common people will stand with the railwaymen shoulder to shoulder to fight for saving the common man’ transport service, the Indian Railways from the axe of privatisation. (IPA Service)