Had previous Railway Ministers, including Mamata Banerjee, raised fares marginally over the years, the current sharp hike would not have been necessary.
In recent years Ministers have resigned, or have been asked to resign, over corruption charges. The late Lal Bahadur Shastri was the only Railway Minister to have quit, in the early 1960s, owning moral responsibility for a rail accident. There have been several Railway Ministers since then and an unending sequence of accidents claiming dozens, even hundreds, of lives — but no resignations. If Dinesh Trivedi, who recently replaced Mamata Banerjee as Union Railway Minister representing the Trinamool Congress, resigns, he will be the first Minister forced to step down because of his party's unhappiness with his budget proposals — in particular, the increase in passenger fares announced in his maiden budget presented to Parliament on Wednesday. That same night his party boss, Ms Banerjee, faxed a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to sack the Railway Minister and offered to nominate a replacement.
Mr. Trivedi made it clear in the Lok Sabha on Thursday morning that he had not yet resigned; he would do so if the Prime Minister or the Trinamool chief asks for it. Earlier, Finance Minister and UPA trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee spoke to Ms Banerjee to get her concurrence to put off the Railway Minister's resignation until the presentation of the Union budget on Friday. But in the meantime, some Trinamool MPs and functionaries went on a protest fast outside Parliament, opposing the proposed increase in passenger fares.
As expected, both Houses of Parliament were rocked by the developments overnight. The Opposition benches wanted to know if Mr. Trivedi was still the Railway Minister. Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha Mr. Mukherjee made it clear that the Prime Minister had not received any resignation but only a fax communication from Ms Banerjee, the leader of an ally in the coalition. No decision had been taken on that as yet.
The question remains: Should the TMC gun for Mr. Trivedi at this juncture? Would it not suffice to demand and secure a partial rollback on the hikes pertaining to passenger train and second class fares? How would it affect the aam admi if the first class or air-conditioned class fares are revised and that too after eight long years? Should there be such a drama just because the TMC nominee did not follow the party policy of no increase rail fares?
That brings us to the next logical question: Who is responsible for the current financial mess that the Indian Railways finds itself in? None other than Ms Banerjee herself. Instead of remaining glued to Kolkata and West Bengal, if she had spent more time at Rail Bhavan, and found out for herself the sorry state of affairs in the Railways, things would not have gone this far. If successive Railway Ministers had gone in for a marginal three to five-per-cent revision in fares over the years, the hefty increase that Mr. Trivedi has now proposed may not have been necessary.
The Railways still needs funds to manage the monolith. Remember that the Indian Railways is the country's largest employer — about 14 lakh employees, and a proposal to recruit another one lakh in the coming year. If the Centre does not want to step up its budgetary support beyond a certain limit, how does it finance the Railway budget? The annual plan for 2012-13 has been set for Rs.60,100 crore — hardly 10 per cent more than last year. The Central budgetary support is restricted to Rs.24,000 crore. Given the high cost of addressing safety and security concerns, the Railways needs to generate internal resources. Last week, through a rationalisation of the freight tariff, it garnered Rs.20,000 crore. The present fare revision should fetch an additional Rs.7,000 crore. With a partial rollback, it could come to Rs.5,000 crore or less. This is better than nothing. Should the Minister be sacked for what he thinks is “doing his duty to the country and the Indian Railways?”
For the UPA, this TMC drama comes as another crisis in an already difficult situation. Naturally, the entire Opposition cornered the government in Parliament on the status of the Railway Minister. When the Congress is trying to shore up the numbers, constituents of the UPA are creating one crisis after another. Without being able to focus on governance, the UPA and Congress managers seem to be fully engrossed only in crisis management. The Dinesh Trivedi crisis is surely one that the UPA-II could have done without, but it is not its fault that the TMC's volatile leader is so unpredictable.
jayanth@thehindu.co.in
Im thankful for the article.Really thank you! Cool.
Ms. Mamata Banerjee has now become the chief minister of India,doing her
trade from Kolkata!
Dinesh Trivedi was elected as an M.P. based on the ideologies of the
party which he represented while fighting the election and whatever
said and done he should have consulted his party leader before presenting the budget, Railway is in a Mess right from the time of
Lalu Prasad Yadav now why blame only Mamatha Banerjeee,it is a game of
the congress government to show that it is always on the right and
their allies are the people who are forcing them to do wrong things,
when Indian government can pump in hundreds of corers to just keep Air
India flying then why not it put some money to improve Railways also, have these people thought of the poor labourers who work thousands of
miles away from home just to earn a living, they deserve some
concessions at least in the form of travel subsidy, and as far as
Kushwant Singh s comments about Ladies it is the comments of
frustrated man in old age who is obsessed with sex
She appears to be an unstable person in a permanent state of fury!
Mamta Banerjee has lost entire credibility by showing all these gimmicks. Congress itself appears to be spineless and instead of thinking of National duty they r merely after their chairs. Please get up and show some strength of character. Right from independence congress party ahs shown no decisive mind accept Mrs. Indira Gandhi when she took uo bold steo for Bangladesh and merger of Sikkim. Sh. Manmohan singh has proved to be the weakest Prime Minister of this country. If not Mamta than it will be Mulayam Singh or DMK leaders. But how long ? You people r calling for unpredictable shots. Better they dissolve the House and seek fresh mendate. They will cpome to know where do they stand in the eye of public. Gor God's sake please take some decision for the sake of country. If u cannot govern the country let somebody else do who is more capable than you.
When will this blackmailing end? And Mamata's unwarranted interference
stop. If this is what democracy is all about it is better to have some
other form of government. A government may take a right or a wrong
decision and Mamata's conduct of holding the government to ransom with
only eighteen MPs in parliament is totally unacceptable. Sooner or later
she will have to pay a very heavy price for this. She does not realize
that the electorate is mute but not dumb. It will make her pay up.
To understand Mamata's action, you've to anticipate what she is up to.
Right now, she knows her days are numbered as a CM. If Congress fails
to comeback to power - and this seems to be very likely given the mess
it is in - she would be reduced to nothing at the center. As a CM she
would be a colossal failure. BJP is also in a similar shoe; it can't
corral a majority at the next election given its current poor showing.
What might be a good possibility is the emergence of the third party,
which has yet to coalesce with a convincing leader. And Mamata is
playing for that position to emerge. She wants to be known throughout
India that she is the no-nonsense leader of the true Aam-Admi. But the
problem is: Her reputation as a crazy woman is already established.
Can the country even consider choosing her as a possible next time? NO
way!
I am not worried whether Mr. Trivedi, the Railways minister shall go
or remain. If he remains he shall be the hero and if he is ousted
then he shall be a greater hero in the parliamentary history of the
world. But the question is the moral right of the prime minister to
continue if Mr Trivedi is removed under the pressure of Mamata
Banerjee.
Basically a M.P. is responsible to the electorate. Party is only a
platform that helps in fighting the election. After being a minister
one is accountable to the Parliament and not to the party.
It a crisis of not only the party in power but also of all the parties
sitting in the opposition bench. Let good seance prevail upon the opposition to play a positive role to save the rich democratic
tradition from being corroded.
Pradipt Kumar Purohit
Angul, Orissa
glad to read the comments here. it restores my faith in my country
that there rationality prevails in india. it is unfortunate that mamta
banerjee does not understand it. these so called protectors of poor
are the ones who will ruin them and want them to be poor. they do not
care about the modernization of railways, they do not care about our
lives, or hygiene in our stations. Mr. Sultan Ahemad feels that
finance minister should finance railways, i.e. your and mine income
tax which should go to sarva shiksha abhiyan be diverted to subsidize
the fare of poor aam admi. they want railways to go air india way.
that is what these guys are doing. please stop this!
Looking at all the mess & crisis coming up everyday & everyone jumping in taking decisions or influencing to change decisions, question arises- who is running the government finally? Now who should be blamed, UPA, TMC or the public who voted them? Or the reason is Coalition of governments. We vote, give power to them & they play as they wish.
There is lot of question from the public but who is going to answer them?
lets make these TMC leaders travel only by aam admi class (sleeper and general) and make them understand how bad the stations and coaches are, both in terms of infrastructure and hygene . I am cent percent confident TMC would achieve, more if not less, whatever communists managed to do in past 30-40 yrs making Kolkata from a major city/hub to a sub-standard highly densed town. Scared to imagine what the future of W.Bengal would be in 4 yeards from now.
It is distusting to see how this arrogant woman is dictating terms to
the government which is about to capitulate again. It is happening
because there are spineless human beings who blindly follw people who
call themeselves leaders. Everyone who has travelled by trains through
the country know what kind of trains we have, how our stations look
like, how the rails need modernization and for that the ridiculously
low fares need to be rationalized. It is the duty of every sensible
citizen to oppose tooth and nail the blackmailing tactics of the
irratic woman from Bengal. She should have learnt from the fate of
another irratic woman who lost miserable the elections.
Who needs opponents when you have allies like the TMC and Mamata Bannerjee. From the very beginning, the TMC has been nothing but a headache to the Congress at the centre. From the way things are going, there will soon be a dictatorship in Bengal.
What a mess! A person puts his mind to his work and these politicians turn it into a
comedy show.
We realy need lot of Dinesh Trivedi in all ministries.
Dear Sir,
Nation, its people and interests should be a priority of all parties. When politics is used as a medium of self promotion, we end up in a situation like current one.
I am not very clear who is directing this drama, what are the ulterior motives and who is the real victim?
best regards,
Hindu: Jayant has rightly depicted prevailing mess being created by e West Bengal chief minister Mamta Bannerjee in the affairs of the UPA government atthe centre.Is she chief minister of WB or Pm? Exactly I remember clomn written by veteran journalist Khushwant Singh in national English daily about one year back in which he had analysed about three women politicians including Jaylaalita of Madras, Mamta of WB and Uma Bharati of MP in which Singh had described how unmarried women create strange things due to lack of conjugal life. Singh had cited certain biological, harmonal reasons of being three these women uncontrorable and mercurial because they remained unmarried!What hell Dinesh Trivedi has created in railway budget by raising nominal rail fare? If it is not justified than how Mamta is taking enhanced pay and perks as CM of WB or was taking such facilities as MP and MR in past at the cost of peoples' money?Her merculiar character is embarrassing the UPA govt!
Coalition has been the biggest problem for congress in their second term. They are not able to pass any law(Lokpal bill), bring out any economic reform(FDI in retail) or setting up any body to counter insurgency and terrorism. TMC has opposed every single thing put forward by congres. I think Didi should curb her arrogance(This is because she knows congress need her to be in power) and start thinking about welfare of the common man which she always boast to.
This was the reason Vajpayee threw out the lady from the cabinet
what is Mamata Benerjee trying to prove to the country by the reaction towards Trivedi ?
That she is fighting for the poor ?
there are many ministers in her own cabinet who are corrupt..
Sacking a minister who has shown us the real picture of railways is severly codemnable..I hope UPA will not bow down to mamata..and dear opposition enough of politics support govt in this issue.
What Mamta Banerjee is doing is nothing but playing a political game.
The railways is in deep financial mess and with its position as the
lifeline of the country; a financially healthy railways is a requisite
for the growth of the economy. I agree to the point that if the rail
fares were hiked by previous ministers then this situation would not
have arisen. Populist schemes and unchecked favoritism to a particular
region for political gains was what the railway budget was reduced
into. Ms. Banerjee instead of asking for a roll back and Dinesh
Trivedi's resignation is better off in focusing on the sad state of
healthcare in West Bengal and the financial mess the state treasury is
in. As Mr. Dinesh Trivedi said, country comes before party. How sad is
it that he has to pay the price for doing just that.
The perils of coalition governments are clear from this fiasco. Mamatha
Banerjee is a maverick out of control politician. She cannot dictate
terms from Kolkatta. Rail fares have to go up if the white elephant is
to be managed and maintained well. Else lives are lost and
inefficiencies increase. Good for Trivedi for standing up to her!
I believe Mamta is acting like a dictator. It is shame that we are going to lose a minister who stood for the country than his party.
Yesterday i saw TIMES NOW Editor in Chief Arnob Goswami and Rail Minister Dinesh Trivedi`s 5 minute talk show. I was really shocked to see that throughout those 5 minutes Arnob was shouting and forcing his own wisdom at Mr. Trivedi. I don`t know how Media, specially Television News channels, has got this right to talk such nonsense to any minister( mind you - here it was a Union Minister). Arnob was talking as if he was the FACE of Whole country and it was he who was selected via elections to humiliate Mr. Trivedi. I feel real sorry For Mr. Trivedi, Because MaMta Bannergee is Responsible for Indian Railways sorry status for last 2 years, and when a person tries to bring reality into picture , he is made a scapegoat for the cheap vote politics.
And Mister Arnob, You looked like a fool , when Mr. Trivedi silenced you with a single statement. That's what happens to the people who keep their mouth open for more time than their brain. Such a nonsense talks are going to do nothing.
Mamata Banarjee gained power in the state of West Bengal with many a promises, and to undo the 'damage' done to the state by the previous party and now she has the power to over throw a central government. I would call her a national tragedy given she is recalling 'her' minister for the present reason, when the most pressing issues faced by the ministry(that was not so long ago 'ruled' by her) did not warrant her attention, including, but not limited to inefficiency and poor safety.
You have rightly said that if there had been a marginal fare raise every
year, it need not have been lumped together this year.
it is surprising that the Bengal lady is dictating terms to the National
party. Is it not a shame for the PM to drop a minister for bringing the
real picture of his ministry and present a budget with a far sighted
thinking and a good thing for the nation and future generation. if at
all any roll back is required it should only to the ordinary class. PM
at any cost should not bow down to the pressures of the mean minded lady
TMC should know that, once nominated , the duty of the party ends.The party should not interfere in his duties, as a minister. By these acts, Mamta has gone down to a very low level, while Trivedi has grown to great heights.
If the some MP's want to oppose the railway budget by fasting in front of parliament, I hope it might jolt them back to reality. If measures are not taken now to fix the rail infrastruture and viability, you are just postponing the inevitable multiple price hikes, later in the future.
The viable future of the country's Railway infrastructure should be assured, above petty politics
Taking umbrage under protecting the interests of the common man TMC is creating an unprescendent ruckus over the fare hike. It is a matter of detail as to how many of the aam aadmi use the railways to commute. It is indeed a breach of coalition dharma for Mamata Bannerjee to ask for replacement of Dinesh Trivedi. Once appointed on recommendation of the coalition partner the minister owes his allegiance to the constitution and not to the party he belongs to. Dr.Manmohan Singh should not cow down to the whimsical behaviour of the Chairperson of TMC and put his foot down. The survival of the UPA II should not be held ransom to self respect and constitutional propriety. All the window dressing done by Mamata Bannerjee and Lalu Prasad Yadav the erstwhile Railway ministers has been exposed in the current Railway budget presented by a minister who knows his economics well and also knows quite a bit as to how to successfully run a commercial enterprise. Such able ministers need encouragement.
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