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Congress sees nothing wrong in Mamata’s decision

Special Correspondent

She is for bringing out a white paper on Railways

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday found nothing wrong in Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to come out with a white paper on the organisational, operational and financial status of the Railways in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

After maintaining a studied silence on the issue since Friday, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari rejected the assumption that the white paper was aimed at faulting the Railways’ performance under the former Minister, Lalu Prasad.

Asked whether the Congress endorsed Ms. Banerjee’s decision, he said: “Transparency is welcome and it should be encouraged. It should not be seen as a reflection on the former Railway Minister.”

As for Ms. Banerjee’s observation in her budget speech that the targets set in the interim budget were “unrealistically high,” Mr. Tiwari maintained that it was not an attempt at belittling her predecessor’s efforts.

“In a global economy, which has seen a slowdown, there may have been an imperative need to revise the projections of the interim budget. She is well within her rights to do so.”

“It’s between them”

Ever since the Railway budget was presented on Friday, the Congress has remained silent on Ms. Banerjee’s criticism of her predecessor’s handling of the Ministry. “It is between Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Prasad. Don’t drag the Congress into it,” said a Congress leader off-the-record, when asked for the party’s reaction.

Braving questions on the rationale behind a white paper, Congress leaders said there was no harm in such a review. “It might be worth finding out how much of the claims made by management guru Lalu Prasad is true.”

As far as the party is concerned, Ms. Banerjee has not questioned the performance of the previous UPA government; she has primarily targeted Mr. Prasad, possibly because he, along with other Railway Ministers from Bihar (Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan), had given West Bengal a raw deal since her last stint in the Railway Ministry. This is a matter best left to the two to sort out.

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