In the cacophony of religious fervour for a holy dip at the Kumbh, amidst bustling railway stations, jostling crowds, and ceaseless proclamations by Indian Railways about the number of train services and the passengers ferried to Prayagraj, lies an inconvenient truth: the approach to passenger safety and convenience is at best tragically outdated, and at worst, a harbinger of disaster.

It is a bitter pill to swallow, but swallow it we must, for the recent tragedy — the stampede at New Delhi railway station on February 15 — has once again exposed the chinks in the armour of the Indian Railways. It has laid bare systemic failures born not of resource constraints but of an indifference to basic needs.

The half-truths

The first question is unavoidable. Was the stampede at New Delhi avoidable? The answer: Yes, it was. Amidst all the noise and shifting of blame, there are certain half-truths that demand scrutiny, for the halves that remain hidden also conceal the seeds of tragedy. In any crowd control scenario, a stampede is averted by ensuring smooth, largely unidirectional movement, eliminating bottlenecks, and implementing robust barricading with adequate staffing of security personnel. All these fundamental principles were glaringly ignored.

Railway representatives have repeatedly asserted that no platform changes were made. Yet, the last-minute announcement of a special unreserved train to Prayagraj on platform 12, when there was already a massive crowd of unreserved passengers on platform 14 for the Prayagraj Express, was tantamount to a change, triggering a surge of chaotic, conflicting movements.

It is also learnt — although not verified yet — that the control room, equipped with CCTV coverage, failed to stop the escalators, notorious for becoming bottlenecks in such situations. Moreover, the number of Railway Protection Force personnel on the one hand and the security arrangements and barricading on the other were inadequate.

The claim that such a massive crowd, particularly unreserved passengers, was unforeseen, defies logic. The Ministry of Railways was proud to announce that over 15 lakh passengers travelled in nearly 350 trains to Prayagraj in February. A simple calculation shows this translates to nearly 300 unreserved passengers in a coach, packed like sardines. New Delhi is a focal point for travellers from North India, and the magnitude of the crowd could have been anticipated based on recent significant ‘bathing days’ at the Kumbh. The Indian Railway’s assertion that it was caught off-guard by a sudden surge in ticket sales towards the evening is a weak line of defence.

The blame has been subtly shifted onto travellers — that they congregated in huge numbers, that they bought large numbers of tickets, and that they did not heed announcements. Yet, none of this was unprecedented.

Festival times always draw huge crowds, and special trains are run routinely to ferry passengers, primarily to the eastern parts of the country. Unreserved tickets are typically sold in large numbers on such occasions, and there are established protocols to handle this. All that the Delhi division of the Indian Railways had to do was to replicate the tried-and-tested Chhath arrangements that have been implemented for decades.

Conflicting statements

Certain crowd control measures introduced after the tragedy — such as additional security personnel, the creation of holding areas, better CCTV monitoring, and stopping the sale of platform tickets — are hardly rocket science. Were it not for the grief of the victims’ families, it would be tempting to call this tragedy a comeuppance for the Railways amidst its grandiose proclamations. On one hand, it reveals the Railways’ hollow attempt to sell a commodity it does not possess: ensuring dignified travel for devotees. On the other, it exposes the Railways’ failure to implement basic crowd control measures well within its capability.

For almost a day, the Railways kept changing its narrative — from denial to dilution to obfuscation and staggering insensitivity. There were conflicting statements by various spokespersons, culminating in the grotesque spectacle of distributing ex gratia payments to the families bereaved even before confirming the death toll. As if that were not bad enough, statements from responsible government quarters suggested having a probe into alleged conspiratorial “fake news” triggering the stampede. This blame game, marked by cynicism, echoes the Railways’ habit of prematurely attributing every mishap or near-accident to sabotage — despite not a single case having been proven.

History is replete with warnings, yet the regime in the Railways, which includes those earlier too, seems to behave like the student who refuses to learn. There have been similar tragedies before, which include the stampede at Elphinstone Road railway station in Mumbai in September 2017 and at Allahabad station during the Kumbh Mela in February 2013. But the past, as they say, is prologue, but only if one is willing to learn from it.

Another flaw

Disturbingly, the first step towards accountability is already a misstep. The “high-level” inquiry is to be conducted by senior railway executives, overseeing the very departments that may be culpable. In stark contrast, even a single fatality in a train accident warrants an investigation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), an entity independent of the Ministry of Railways. Although technically not categorised as a train accident, an independent inquiry — whether by the CRS or another external agency — would have demonstrated the Railways’s commitment to transparency. Yet, as it stands, the Railways is both the accused and the judge.

The heart of the issue runs even deeper. Is there an ingrained malaise within the Railways, the supposed lifeline of the nation, that the more things should change, the more they stubbornly remain the same? Until the Railways confronts its own systemic inertia, tragedies such as these will continue to be written off as unfortunate inevitabilities rather than preventable failures.

Sudhanshu Mani is a retired General Manager, Indian Railways, leader of the Railways’ ‘Vande Bharat’ project and an independent consultant