First things first. Mumbai Local Trains carry on a mammoth task of transporting millions of people to work daily. Day after day, year after year. The mere scale at which it operates is commendable and deserves respect. A case can be made about its slow processes, how privatization can benefit it, what more can be done, etc. But no one will deny Mumbai Local Trains of the adjective “Lifeline”.
Who are the people who use these trains? Why do they do it? Mumbai Local Trains provide the fastest and the cheapest way of moving across the narrow city of Mumbai. That is the reason why scores of people commute through it daily. Students, businessmen, executives, workers, government employees, travellers and literally everyone travels through the local train daily.
Given its importance, even a slight glitch affects lakhs of people. Lakhs! The impact is multi-fold. If the trains aren’t working then there is no other way to commute for people. This causes them to miss work, school and college and sets them behind by a day. This sets the whole progressing city behind by a day. Countless meetings cancelled, countless lectures missed, countless exams delayed, countless interviews missed.
Today was one such day. There were a protesting group of students who wished to be employed at the railways. The irony! They were not getting recruited and hence decided to stop the local trains. They stopped the trains at Matunga and the whole Central Line stopped working. The trains literally were at a standstill for hours, with thousands of commuters inside them. Given that there is no way for the driver to communicate with passengers, people could only get information online.
We were left standing for more than three hours in a train which refused to budge ahead. We were standing in the middle of nowhere with no mobile service. Thousands standing in a jam-packed train for hours. While I may be sympathetic to the cause of the protesters, the hardships which were borne by people who were in no way guilty is something which made me angry. What did we do wrong? What was our mistake? Were we a reason for the injustice done to you?
This case is not standalone. There have been countless incidents where the only thing that protesters could think of is stopping the local trains. Be it reservations, lack of jobs, political issues, etc the only solution seems to be stopping the lifeline of Mumbai. Inconveniencing the very people who are going through the same hardships that you are. It is as if the Mumbai Suburban Train network is not for commuters, but a medium used by protesters to voice out their concerns. A channel to voice dissent.
This is the voice of an angry Mumbaikar who is tired of being forced to go through problems. I write this on behalf of all the millions who go through these problems silently. Women, men, students, old people who are forced to jump on to the tracks and walk towards the nearest station. Who are forced to come back home and waste a working day. I ask one question, “What is our fault?”
This is also to the security officials and administrators who are clueless and are not capable of stopping these events. Why is it that every time, no action is taken against the perpetrators? No follow up is done to stop this from happening again? Why are the uniform and its power given to you? To take bribes and only show your supposed masculinity on the powerless? Why is the Police so inept? How dare local politicians, party men, reservation seekers and many such protesting people stop the local train service and get away with it? How dare a hundred people disturb the lives of lakhs? How dare they?
The protesters present a poor case while causing further pain to the already troubled Mumbaikar. Apart from making headlines, is anything else accomplished by such imbecility? Then why do it? They just see their names and faces flashed across TV screens and newspapers. They think they are committing an act of bravado by having the power to stop trains. Let me tell those people, you are not. At all. It is not an act of bravery but one of cowardice. It is always seen that such protests are led by people who are jobless with low intelligence and employable skills. So they inconvenience those who are employed. They are further supported by our lovely political parties. I shall not comment on political parties. The kind of people that are present in these parties is well known.
On the other side, there were thousands of farmers who came to the city and protested not long ago. They made sure that no one was inconvenienced and their voice was heard simultaneously. Illiterate rural farmers understand this. Then why doesn’t the supposed literate urban dweller?
I hope with time the commuters are able to reclaim the local trains from protesters. I hope that a day comes when we won’t have to hear about trains being stopped for a long time. I hope.