Indian Railways is a part of the Union Government, and hence, by extension, when one is traveling on a train of the Railways, one is using Government property. As a result, people employed on the train or providing services are deemed to belong to the Government. This should also include contractors who provide services to the passengers and if they misbehave, they need to be taken to task. Passengers have the right to ensure that they are not mistreated in any way, and the Railways also need to penalize such staff or contractors to ensure that they do not repeat such behavior (and if such behavior gets to be a pattern, then the contractor needs to be removed from service along with a heavy penalty).
The treatment meted out to a couple on a train begs to be punished. When the staff provided a water bottle that was not the standard one, the man asked for the proper bottle and was subjected to misbehavior (including physical assault). The problem is, previous cases of physical assault or other behavior by such contractors would not have been punished in the way that they should be, which emboldens the contractor and the staff to continue such behavior. Indian Railways, if it has to continue to attract paying customers, and also to avoid cases and legal problems, has to ensure that such behaviour is not tolerated and an overall sense of accountability in the organization needs to be present (link to article):
Taking serious note of the assault on a Bhayander couple by pantry staffers of an express train between Kota and Ratlam on Sunday night, Western Railway’s general manager G C Agrawal on Tuesday fined the caterer Rs5 lakh and ordered a high-level inquiry into the assault incident.
Businessman Pradip Gupta (48) and his wife Asha were assaulted by around 20 staffers of Sun Shine Caterers on the Hazrat Nizamuddin- Bandra Terminus train. Gupta had objected to being served bottled water ‘Pavan’ instead of ‘Rail Neer’ which has to be sold on railways.
The caterers, some uniformed, pulled Gupta by the collar around 10pm. The caterers abused him and assaulted him before pulling the alarm chain and abandoning the train.