Monday, June 17, 2013

IRCTC: Myth vs Reality

http://www.irctc.co.in needs no introduction. Each one of us have spent good amount of time just gazing at computer screen for something to happen. But to no avail. All we saw were “Connection Time Outs” and excruciating delays. I have seen people venting their anger on irctc website for failing to get tickets booked using choicest of expletives.
It seems all that is wrong with Indian Railways is just irctc website. It is just the website that hampers us from getting the tickets. And if it is fixed, we would all get tickets. But is it really the case?
Friends, website is just a mirage. All it helps is giving us common people a face to lambast, to vent our anger. The real problem is, we don’t have enough trains, we don’t have enough seats. Irctc is just a portal to book tickets, the tickets that are non-existent.
If a good chunk of a population of 120cr logs in on a website, no earthly power can prevent the crashes. Still with all those login failures and time outs, we see tickets are wiped off within 5-10 mins (more so with tatkal tickets). Why/How?
Try and understand that someone is getting the tickets ultimately. Someone who wants to travel just like us. Its not that the tickets are going waste. The problem is the pie. When pie is very small, the pieces of it would be small too. Here is where touts come in. People blame the ticket agents. You know they stand in ticket line since wee hours or sometime all through the night, to get the tickets booked for their clients. Why to blame them? They just earn a living out of a traversity.
Blame lies on the successive Governments. What have they done to increase the number of trains, increase the number of seats. Not only has our population increased over the decades, the travelling junta have increased manifold. In effect per capita seats (seats/travelling person), have gone down to abysmal stats.
Not much is being done in this regard. When railway gives impression that they are fixing irctc website, they are eliminating touts/agents, it is just a cosmetic exercise to keep people calm, to assure them that something is being done. It’s just a lollypop. The real problem is demand/supply. Unless we spread out the train lines, increase number of trains, this will continue.
India has already borne the brunt of people fighting for their own share of minuscule pies over the years. If something is not done soon enough, add train journey to the list of next social wars in the country.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Take Moral Responsibility and Resign

Wikipedia explains Moral Responsibility as, the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission, in accordance with one’s moral obligations.
He/she should take moral responsibility and resign. Of late I have been reading this statement a lot. This is very common in politics where probity is something which politicians have to abide by due to the public nature of their job. It is much less in private organizations.
This responsibility lies in one’s own moral obligations which differ from person to person. What might be moral obligation for Gandhi, might not be for Godse. I have been reading media reports on how/why head of a particular sports body is asked to resign taking so called moral responsibility. And the concerned person is not ready to.
There is a basic flaw which I find in the moral responsibility argument. When we know a person has done something wrong, it clearly makes him immoral. So in effect we are asking an immoral person to take moral responsibility. Which he clearly will not, as it means relinquishing the power.
On the other hand if a person has done nothing wrong, is honest and moral, the allegations will hurt him/her and in turn he/she will resign. Thus what “moral responsibility and resigning” conundrum does is, it makes moral people relinquish power while immoral people continue enjoying it.
What I feel is society and its pole bearers should get together and throw away the immoral people rather than asking for their resignation. In the particular case of this sports body, the moral people of the organization should get rid of the immoral. But the sad truth is, we are part of a society that celebrates immorality since it beds with power and money. And who would not want it?
Look around, which side would you rather be on? Honestly I would side with power, be it tainted. This is the chilling reality.