PERUMON TO SOUMYA: MURDERS MOST FOUL

Ever since Sage Parasurama with a flick of his able wrist propelled his divine battle axe from Gokarnam to Kanyakumari and magically reclaimed the strip of land called Kerala from the sea, it has been a balmy, temperate place. The Keralites, spoiled beyond measure by the idyllic climate, the natural beauty and the sedate pace of life in the Sage's own land, (now dubbed God's Own Country by the wiz kids of Stark Advertising who "sell the State" for Kerala Tourism) were the only people who stridently complained about the HOT summers and the BLUSTERY rainy season. If they had travelled around and discovered for themselves what heat meant, or for that matter cold, they wouldn't have dared to open their mouths again.

We had our share of the heat spells, and admittedly, a fair share of the windy monsoons. But more or less pleasant and balmy weather was the hallmark of the land all along, not only when the tough Sage had directly supervised the running of his pet country, but through the later centuries too when a string of kings and chieftains held sway over the land. Had it been otherwise, it would have found sure mention in that delectable "garland of legends" ('Aithihyamala') by Kottarathil Sankunni, raconteur par excellence. The Brits, for all their colonial faults, couldnt be said to have been lax when it came to documenting the climate and weather patterns of the sub-continent. Also, the Maharajah of Travancore, who took the initiative to establish an observatory, one of the oldest in the sub-continent, was an amateur weatherman himself. The long and short of it is that never was recorded in the history of this ribbon of land any typhoons or squalls or suchlike manifestations of the anger of the weather gods.

Until the fateful day of July 8, 1988.

According to the experts of the Indian Railways (whose main business we thought was running trains efficiently and on time--at least trying to-- and not weather-watching), Nemesis in the guise of a tornado stealthily and suddenly appeared and lifted ten coaches of the Bangalore-Kanyakumari express train off the Perumon bridge and plunged them into the depths of the Ashtamudi lake, killing about 105 people. That many in country boats were fishing nearby did not deter the tornado as it was confident it could do its dark deed with absolute stealth. Not a single palm frond nearby was shaken by the tornado --such was its stealth and focus! The eyes of the weather men and their weather radars were clouded over with stealth technology by the tornado while it struck, so that all over the country no unusual weather was observed or recorded.

It was usual right from the days of the British Raj for officials to devote considerable time to personal hobby interests, and more so when their jobs involved long periods of offficial inactivity. The railway Safety Commissioner's job was one such. In times of no breach of safety, he spent time idly like a chafing war horse. It was quite probable that he had in his spare time over the years cultivated an intimacy with the vagaries of Indian weather that had probably escaped the eyes of the harried regular weathermen. He knew the stealthy tornadoes intimately.

One look at the "mysterious" (the 'mystery' had to do with "how did it happen?" But to the layman without much imagination, it appeared that some flaw, probably in the rails, had caused the train to derail and plunge into the lake) accident site convinced the Safety Commissioner that the villain was a stealthy tornado! After due investigations and examinations of witnesses, most whom as typical Keralites were ignorant of what a tornado was, he submitted a detailed report. Suffice to say the report went to great lengths to ensure the safety of the railways and its minions in the post-tragedy scenario. As a wag pointed out at the time, the people were fools to think that he would act like the Public Safety Commissioner; his official designation amply clarified his duties, and he only did what he was supposed to do.

Whether the accident and the tragedy was the result of human error or oversight, his choice of an "Act of God" as the causal force had about it a stroke of genius and benevolence. In these days of Ahimsa, no scapegoats were needed to satisfy the bloodlust of the public. Probably what guided him was also the philosophical resignation that whatever you did could not bring back those who had found a watery grave on that tragic day; surely the plight of the living was supreme, whose lives could be made sheer hell by unpleasant and unnecessary questions that could be raised by all and sundry. The tornado upon whom the blame was fixed for the tragedy was sure not to protest the finding of the Commission, as it was unlikely that it would visit Kerala again for another Millennium or more. This is how public servants and Commissions of Inquiry should function. Find a generally acceptable and credible culprit and close the files after due legal process. Thanks largely to such practices, the railways could get back to their business of keeping the largest network of rolling stock in the world rolling steadily and smoothly.

Along with the Indian Posts & Telegraphs (now a doddering non-entity, thanks to Liberalization era reforms) the Indian Railways shared the distinction of being behemoths who were a law unto themselves. The disdain exhibited especially by the telephones department when a poor customer sought to raise a complaint of over-billing is only legion. They claimed, like the government of today does with the list of names of the black money kings, that they had immunity and they were not under obligation to make public "technical information" like the phone usage details of an individual. Finally that saviour of the "Aam aadmi", the Supreme Temple of Justice, ruled that so long as the department took money from the public in lieu of a service, it would be bound by the relevant rules. And the behemoth had to, unwillingly though, shelve its hauteur and behave.

The Indian Railways often is something like an empire with its own laws, and answerable to none. When sometime back a couple of lady academics whom I knew well undertook a journey from Trivandrum, Kerala, to Hyderabad, the most precious content of their baggage was their doctoral theses and related papers. Their "possessive behaviour" triggered the antennae of some among the legion of thugs and thieves ( I am not here meaning those in the employ of the railways and who practice the above trade), cut-purses and bag snatchers who, with impunity, make an excellent living off the many trains plying the length and breadth of this vast land of ours. That night their baggage was stolen. Luckily the ladies awoke in time to discover their loss and tried their best to get the Ticket Examiner do something about it. He, true to his official training and behaviour, brushed aside their plaints and pleadings and went off in a huff. Thanks to the initiative of co-passengers, the broken-open suitcases were discovered in the vestibule--where the chagrined thieves had dumped them. The papers were in disarray and thrown to the floor and the wind was doing its best to distribute it over the countryside. The duo, downcast and dispirited, got down at the next station and lodged a complaint with the Station Master and the police, who apparently believed that sympathetic behaviour did not go well with officialdom. With much hardship they attended their interviews and returned.

Months later the machinery of justice, turning ponderously, finally issued a summons to the professors to attend a hearing in some north Indian city court. As they were busy academics and as they had good legal advice, they were finally able to prevail upon the railways to shift the venue to within Kerala. At the hearing the tone adopted by the counsel for the railways made it appear that the two ladies had started from Kerala with a load of worthless papers with the express aim of defrauding the railways of a tidy sum of money! Fortunately this vein of questioning and argument did not 'gel' with the presiding Judge and, pulling up the railway's counsel for his frivolity and lack of civility, reminded him about the railways contractual obligations etc (buying a ticket entitles you to such, no less). In the end damages were awarded to the two lady academics, and all agreed that it was not the money but the spirit of the award that made the whole exercise worthwhile.

A young man who lost a couple of his fingers when a damaged window shutter fell on his hand was chastised by the railway counsel for not exercising caution and common sense and for trying to make an easy living by embezzling money from the railways. If you know the phrase "adding insult to injury", you will know exactly how the plaintiff felt. Fortunately some eagle-eyed youngsters discovered that the same coach was continuing in service without any repairs, and reconsideration of the case laid the blame squarely upon the railways, leading to a redressal of the original complaint.

Instances like the above are countless and they read like an enumeration of the railways' continuing criminal apathy towards the plight of passengers. They take your money and act as if they are doing you a favour. They act as if they are an unquestionable law unto themselves, and time and again they prove in the lawcourts  and in public that they cannot be "touched".

It is perhaps some sort of a tragic coincidence that on the 23rd anniversary of the Perumon tragedy, a 23 year old young girl's life was snuffed out, largely as a result of the continuing indifference of the Indian Railways.  Soumya, an ill-fated commuter in the Shoranur Passenger train, was the victim of attempted robbery and later cruel rape and cold-blooded murder by the miscreant who had pushed her out of the running train. The tragedy shook the conscience of Kerala in many subtle ways. But televised reports of the railway Divisional Manager's conference the next day presented "text book attempts" at discovering novel ways of shifting the blame. It was patently clear that the railways were culpable for the lack of any security arrangements for the passengers despite long-standing and vocal demands by the travelling public. Technicalities will always be found to explain away inconvenient truths and to brush the dirt under the carpet. Such is the inhumanity of officialdom, especially in post-independence India.

The railways have grown into a huge machinery of indifference and its minions are apparently strangers to what is commonly called conscience. Its responses are, to put it another way, typical corporate behaviour. Wash your hands of all inconvenient truths and distance yourself from all that could be troublesome to you. Money-minded corporates could get away with such behaviour. But in a national service like the railways, funded by public money and meant as a service to the tax-paying public, and NOT as a profit-making mechanism, this sort of anti-people behaviour can no longer be tolerated. The concept of the Welfare State might be anathema to liberal economic pundits like Mr Singh or his cohorts, but India has a set of Constitutional guiding principles that are distinctly different from the personal preferences of people who come and go, or people who somehow get in and refuse to go.

Ours is an elected democracy and public instititutions must fulfil their public obligations, and accountability is not something that can be shifted to "the other man". This should be insisted upon with the clout of the laws of the land. We recall with gratitude how the Supreme Court once made the telephones Goliath bow to the little David, the "aam aadmi". Once again the powerful gavel of the Justices should hammer into indifferent giants like the railways the need to displace their arrogance and impunity with social commitment, civic sense and a pro-active approach. Officials should realize that they are nothing if not the servants of the millions whom they serve every day. This is the right time for the railways to augur in some changes. They have a sensitive woman heading the ministry, and perhaps a woman's touch could prove to be the magic element to restore what was lacking till now.

It is so sad that on the 23rd anniversary of the Perumon tragedy when a child born back then was sacrificed again for no crime of hers upon the altar of the indifference of the railways. Govinda Samy's hands are literally stained with the blood of Soumya. We witnessed the railways, like Pontius Pilate after the sentencing of Jesus, ritually washing their hands of all liability and culpability. But anybody could see that the water has turned a deep crimson red...with the blood of the innocent young girl.

QUO VADIS, railways???

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