Reflections of Rajaram Bojji

To Shri Dinesh Trivedi , Hon'ble Minister of Railway Rail Bhavan, New Delhi. Dear Sir, Rest assured I am not trying to congratulate you, to get any favour or attention from your high office. I served my nation to the best of my abilities and retired and refused to take up any commercial re-employment, except being a ( no salary) member of the Empowered Board of Government of India for delivering the ITER ( the first Fusion Reactor) in France, a multi national effort, for two years. Though it is unlikely my email would be put up to you, it is still my call of conscience that I should congratulate you for heading the august railway ministry, and share a few thoughts with you on this occasion. We railway men fall hopelessly in love with our railways. The emotional ties develop too strongly for us- may be because we serve 24/7 for over 35 years, unlike other services where, once they leave office , can go back to family and sleep peacefully. Welcome to the club Sir!! You too will now s...

Indian Railways suffer from one basic deficiency. Insecure ministers and more insecure bureaucracy formed by technical branches and non-technical personnel, with technical ones acting more bureaucratically and non-technical persons acting to be more technical on technical issues, each branch acting in self-interest not related to Indian Railways as a whole, and doing their best to pull each other down. This show is watched with amusement by the rest of the Ministries in Delhi manned masters of all they see in India who also control the cadre of Indian Railway higher management through the Establishment Officer processing the case for Appointments Committee. There is scant respect for us over there. The stubbornness typical of insecure child is what is commented upon. The Planning Commission's attitude to railways is typically summarised in comments of Montek Singh, who said if there is one ministry he dare not advise, it happened to be railways. They are simply stubborn, is their ...