Rainmaker on Track

Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu hops from his office table to his lounge a few metres away so often that it is enough to keep him as fit as an athlete. He is agile and quick, throwing gentle instructions to his assistants in between meetings. These days, he meets as many people as possible—especially senior officials and experts who are there to help him prepare the Railway Budget with suggestions, questions and counter questions. Amid all the brainstorming in which he is an active participant, something that leaves officials enthused, there are intruders the Railway Minister has to deal with: netas of all kind, MPs and regional satraps who wear their attitude on their faces. They walk into his room with demands that range from new trains to their hometowns and new railway lines to their villages, and insist—as if by force of habit—that he announce these decisions in his 26 February budget. Prabhu, mild mannered and highly receptive, welcomes this seemingly aggressive lot with warmth, but doesn’t forget to raise questions about how they can contribute to improving railway passenger amenities in their constituencies. Some of their demands border on the ridiculous, given the losses incurred every year by the country’s largest employer, but the minister dismisses them politely, saying he would see what can be done. But the succession of unviable requests doesn’t seem to end. To some MPs, Prabhu flaunts the example of Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan who has donated a large chunk of his MPLADS fund to ensure better passenger amenities.

A day in the life of India’s Railway Minister offers a sharp contrast to the way the country’s trains chug along, clocking almost the same time to get passengers from place to place in the 21st century as they did in the late 1960s. Sample this: the Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani Express, introduced back in 1969, used to take 17 hours back then to cover more than 1,400 km, at an average of 85 kmph. Forty-six years later, it plies at the same speed.

True, the 1990s saw some progress in the railways sector, with the introduction of high-speed trains and luxury services, yet there is a long way to go before it catches up with the rest of the world, especially emerging nations like China, Russia and Brazil. The hectic parleys at Delhi’s Rail Bhavan in the run-up to the Budget reflect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan to transform the 161-year-old organisation into a robust engine of growth. Modernising Indian Railways is one of Modi’s top priorities, as he expects the overhaul of Asia’s largest rail network under a single entity to become ‘a driver of rural development’. Besides, it is no secret that he wants to aggressively upgrade the state-run transporter through private investment since he believes public funds are meant for fulfilling the basic needs of the poor, such as health and education.

Nobody is more aware of the import of Modi’s railway thrust than Prabhu himself. After all, he was brought in to Ministry to bring some ‘gravitas’ and much-needed ‘pace’, replacing a relatively unassertive Sadananda Gowda, who was shifted to the Law Ministry last November in a major ministerial reshuffle aimed at bringing in fresh talent.

Darting from table to table and from issue to issue, Prabhu has little time to lose. His primary motive: to attract investment for the Railways, which has a backlog of 300 projects that require funds of Rs 1.7 lakh crore. The Indian Railways, which chalks up losses of roughly Rs 26,000 crore every year thanks to its low passenger fares (easily the lowest in the world), has so far been able to raise only a paltry Rs 13,000 crore for new projects that include a doubling of existing lines capacity, laying new tracks and so on. The system charges steep freight charges (among the highest in the world) to cross-subsidise second-class passenger fares and suburban train services. The policy, however, has hurt the Railways: from a market share of more than 60 per cent of goods movement in the late 1980s, the Railways’ share has fallen to almost half that figure as roadway transporters have taken freight traffic away, garnering 60 per cent of the goods market compared with 34 per cent in the late 80s.

No wonder, the Railway Minister is desperate for investment from all possible quarters to facilitate rapid development in the sector. And that’s not all. Identifying problem areas and coming up with innovative ideas to resolve them is another part of the challenge.

Noted economist Bibek Debroy, who heads a panel of experts to recommend how the Indian Railways should be restructured, captures Prabhu at work. “I have never seen Suresh Prabhu use a lift. He uses the stairs and if you are with him, you end up huffing and panting. That kind of sums him up. To transform the Railways, he is a man in a hurry. With his background, he understands the financial aspects especially well. He is innately against controlling it, which is also a key ingredient of reforming it.”

Adds Anant Swarup, executive director of public grievances in the Ministry: “The expectations from the minister are huge, and he is leaving no stone unturned.” The officer emphasizes that there is a sudden spurt of hope in the department which, employing 1.4 million people, is the world’s seventh largest employer. The cash-strapped behemoth, which ferries 23 million passengers daily, is in dire need of funds to set up infrastructure to boost the network’s capacity and quality of services. “The MPs who walk into his room are not aware of the grave challenge of building infrastructure. In the absence of such infrastructure, you can’t run new trains and build new lines because some MP thinks his hometown needs a new train and better amenities for passengers travelling to his place,” says another railway official, visibly upset at crowds milling outside Prabhu’s office with what he calls ‘frivolous’ demands. “They are still behaving like ticket seekers,” he rues.

But then Prabhu, 62, is not new to people breathing “down his neck” and goading him to do “undoable things”, says a BJP leader who has known him for quite some time. This leader recalls that when Prabhu first came to Parliament as a Shiv Sena lawmaker representing the Rajapur constituency of Maharashtra in 1996, he rapidly earned a reputation as an “un-Shiv Sena-like member”, as he puts it.

A chartered accountant by training, Prabhu was a political oddball among the largely aggressive bunch of Shiv Sena leaders whose reckless provincialism was often identified with being cantankerous. An official who served in Parliament at the time says that Prabhu was articulate and full of ideas. “He made very sensible speeches and offered an insightful analysis when financial-market scams surfaced around then,” he notes.

A high performer in academics, Prabhu is an alumnus of Frei University, Berlin, and Mumbai University. In politics, he is seen as a policy wonk with a sharp eye for facts and figures. “His knowledge of subjects and his readiness to learn and be part of parliamentary proceedings in the true spirit of debate was very notable,” says a CPM leader. “It also showed that apart from being an accomplished chartered accountant, he has held several key positions [including chairmanship of Maharashtra State Finance Commission, Saraswat Cooperative Bank, and membership of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Board],” says this former MP of the CPM.

If Prabhu has endeared himself to people across the political spectrum, it is thanks to his “impeccable conduct”, says the BJP leader, adding that “among those who valued him was BJP veteran AB Vajpayee”. Prabhu held several portfolios under the former Prime Minister’s multiple terms in office—first in the 13-day cabinet of 1996 and then in the 1999-2004 period—such as Industry, Environment and Forests, Fertilisers & Chemicals, Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises. But it was as Union Minister for Power that he won plaudits for introducing major reforms, including enacting the Electricity Act of 2003.

“Coming back to the irritants that he is familiar with, it is when he was a star of the previous NDA regime that he was forced to resign from the Vajpayee Cabinet by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray for not toeing his line,” adds the BJP leaders, pointing out that ‘toeing the line’ is a “euphemism for something else”. A well-regarded minister, Prabhu was displeased by the prospect of letting his political masters get away with pelf. In August 2002, it cost him his job.

But by then, during his brief stint, he had left a distinctive mark on the Power Ministry, says Anil Razdan, a former power secretary who had worked closely with Prabhu as joint secretary in the department. “He was young and dynamic. Having worked with Prabhu at close quarters, I would say that he encourages transparency and out-of- the-box thinking,” says Razdan, who also tags Prabhu as a ‘man in a hurry’. He invariably wanted to expedite projects, recalls Razdan. For instance, Prabhu managed to push several hydro-electric power projects languishing for years into revival mode, says the former bureaucrat. “The Ranganadi hydel power project in Arunachal Pradesh, Tehri hydropower project in Uttarakhand, and Nathpa Jakri in Himachal Pradesh are some of them,” he says, “Others include the Indira Sagar hydro power plant in Madhya Pradesh.”

As a minister, Prabhu was far more receptive to new ideas than anyone he has ever worked with before, says Razdan. When he approached him with the suggestion that the Ministry do a ‘road show’ to mobilise support for the new Electricity Bill (of 2003) and also organise a three-tier orientation programme to win legislative and popular approval for it, Prabhu jumped at the idea. “Go ahead,” he told Razdan. Thanks to his nod, road shows meant to familiarise people with the “wisdom of electricity reforms” were held throughout the country, says Razdan. “The various levels at which it was held were meant for senior opinion leaders, college students and then for the general public,” he explains. And it clicked.

Following his unceremonious exit in 2002 as Power Minister from the NDA Government at the insistence of the Shiv Sena supremo, Prabhu was ‘rehabilitated’ by the BJP as chairman of a task force on the interlinking of rivers with a status and rank of a Cabinet minister. He was later elected a member of the World Bank parliamentary network and even chaired the Bretton Woods institution’s South Asia Water regional group.

Prabhu, who continued to hold his Lok Sabha seat until his defeat in the 2009 polls, soon hit the global seminar circuit, drawing high-level investor attention to the opportunities offered by the Indian power sector. Having visited over 100 countries, thanks to his association with dozens of global organisations, he often reels out statistics on India’s power scenario in comparison with other markets without even referring to his notes. “Like Vajpayee before him, Modi too has recognised his potential,” says the BJP leader.

Before Prabhu was handpicked to head the Railway Ministry, he had been roped in by Modi to advise various ministerial panels and stakeholders on how to refurbish the country’s power sector. “He is very efficient and has been a Modi loyalist for long, despite being a member of the Shiv Sena until last November, when he joined the BJP,” says another BJP leader. Prabhu had called off a visit to Wharton University after it cancelled Modi’s keynote address at the Wharton India Economic Forum two years ago.

Rated as one of three future leaders of India by Newsweek, Prabhu is married to former journalist Uma, with whom he has a son. Though he’d enjoyed good ties with Bal Thackeray’s son Uddhav briefly, it was only a matter of time that he joined the BJP, say observers.

The frenetic activity at Rail Bhavan nowadays confirms that Narendra Modi’s commands are Prabhu’s wishes. “I want to make things happen very quickly,” says Prabhu, conveying the gist of the mission at hand. NITI Aayog Vice- chairman Arvind Panagariya has no doubt that under Prabhu, the Indian Railways will achieve stupendous success. “Prabhu is among the most dynamic ministers,” says the renowned globalisation guru and Columbia University professor, “You only have to spend a few minutes at or outside his office to appreciate the energy and activity around him.”

Assigned the task of playing rainmaker for the ailing Railways, Prabhu is determined to count his blessings, especially the faith Modi has in him.

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