The gimmick of the Railway Minister, of gaining high moral ground while the Cabinet reshuffle is being facilitated, cannot whitewash the stain on the Railways’ image (“Prabhu offers to quit, but Modi says ‘wait’”, August 24). The Indian public is not so naïve so as to be fooled into believing that good governance means introducing bullet trains and Wi-Fi while the quality of services offered remains poor and safety remains a huge concern. The solution does not lie in Suresh Prabhu resigning. Concrete action needs to be taken on the ground and accountability has to be established across the board.
Varghese George,
Secunderabad
It is good that the Railway Minister offered to resign. It reminds me of how Lal Bahadur Shastri had resigned following the Ariyalur train disaster in 1956. Such a crop of politicians is seldom found these days.
K.V. Seetharamaiah,
Hassan
Suresh Prabhu’s resignation offer is laudable. At a time when even State Ministers are glued to their seats and refuse to resign in the wake of a scam or a tragedy, he must be complimented for volunteering to demit office. However, the Railways needs to introspect and take some hard decisions to address the serious deficiencies in track maintenance and safety protocols. Unless sustained efforts are taken to improve operational efficiency, it will be difficult to instil confidence among the travelling public. More importantly, such tragedies would have a dampening effect on the Prime Minister’s vision of introducing bullet trains.
P.K. Varadarajan,
Chennai
There have been a lot of expectations from this government and especially from the Railway Minister, which is why these episodes cause great disappointment. With GST, travelling AC and first class became more expensive. In 2016, the Railways doubled the ticket cancellation charge. The year before that Tatkal ticket charges went up for AC and sleeper class. What is the point of all this if we are not able to prevent accidents? Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not hesitate to relieve Suresh Prabhu of this portfolio. If he doesn’t, then the people of the country will feel that Mr. Modi only preaches about corruption and inefficiency but doesn’t act on it.
N. Mahadevan,
Chennai
