The gravy train

In God we trust; the rest pay cash." That sign, with the tell-tale allusion to the credo on American coinage, adorns many a commercial establishment in the US. It may as well appear in all offices of Indian Railways and be emblazoned on Rail Bhavan in New Delhi. And that is not just because cash is the overwhelming mode of receipt of rail revenues - be it passenger fares or freight charges. Current headlines of the ignominious departure of the most recent chief occupant of that edifice highlight what has been a fact of life for a major part of the existence of the 160-year-old organisation: a money trail of quite another kind finds its path all the way to the very top.

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