In 27 pages, and a (B) case later, writers Tarun Khanna, Aldo Musacchio and Rachna Tahiliani offered a setting, “to study the relationship between electoral politics and managerial performance in the largest state-owned company in the world: Indian Railways.”

The case, “Indian Railways, Building a Permanent Legacy?” added to the halo that Lalu Prasad, then railways minister, and his aide Sudhir Kumar, had created.

Of course, not everyone believed that the railways had made that lasting a transformation. The detractors were right, now that the underbelly of the proud organisation lies exposed via ‘BansalGate,’ a top manager in custody, accused of buying his way to the board.

Now this is what the Harvard Business School (HBS) case writers didn’t tell us: the axis that has hollowed “the largest state-owned company in the world.”

We’re talking serious amounts of cash. Remember, during the 12th Plan alone, the Railways will get Rs 1.94 lakh crore of your money and mine; a mecca of state-sector tendering.

Some works, no doubt, go entirely on merit. But the rest remain away from public eye and the media; in a fuzzy zone known only to bright technocrats and the mafia. Their expertise lies in framing tender conditions in a creative manner such that only the chosen ones win.

Turf wars exist, but there are invariably a sideshow. The railways is so large that the Board’s seven members and 16 ‘open line’ general managers (GMs) run virtually autonomous empires.

One such disagreement was between Ranjit Sinha, the present chief of Central Board of Investigation (CBI), and Mahesh Kumar, the now disgraced member (staff) of the Rail Board. Sinha, in an earlier deputation to the Indian Railways as director-general Railway Protection Force, and Kumar, who was executive director/additional member (telecom) in the Railway Board, apparently disagreed over a large tender. Kumar prevailed due to his proximity with then rail minister Mamata Banerjee. But now that he stands remanded to CBI custody, Sinha seems to have had the last laugh.

Yet not before the entire country came to confront the ugly realization that even secretary-level positions, not just in Lucknow or Patna, but in the Bhavans of Lutyens Delhi, are up for auction; Kumar having allegedly bribed a go-between with Rail Minister PK Bansal to be moved from member (staff) to a juicier job as member (electrical), when Kul Bhushan, the present incumbent, might be named chairman Rail Board in June.

No top gun wagers his own money for a plum posting. The funding comes from the mafia targeting mega tenders.

It helps such a profiteer if the officer in alliance has been hand picked from an ever-enlarging ‘zone of consideration’. For example, if the Rail Board chairman has to be named, the original norm used to be seniority. This left very little discretion for the transfer-posting mafia or even the Rail Minister, who anchors the proposal at the appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) chaired by the Prime Minister (the home minister being the only other invitee).

Since most Rail Board members invariably are left with only a few months to superannuate, away from public eye, the politico-corporate mafia managed to insert a norm that a member can be left out of the ‘zone of consideration,’ if he/she had less than two years left in service. Since members and the chairman draw the same salary, catapulting someone with more service than another member senior to him isn’t even supersession! Slowly, even the GMs of the so-called ‘open line’ have been smuggled into the ‘zone of consideration.’ Reason? For any minister (and the mafia) 16 general managers and seven board members to choose from is a source of greater clout, Harvard be damned!

Finally, internal vigilance. For an organization of such size, the railways can spare only an additional member (equivalent of additional secretary) for the duties of chief vigilance officer (CVO). The CVO reports to the Central Vigilance Commissioner, he, AK Maitra, as is the convention, is a railway officer, thus subject to all the incestuous pressures an officer faces minding his own cadre. It gets worse with the chairman of the railway board serving as the CVO’s boss, and the nephews further up!