Rail budget 2014: Furious TMC loses plot, joins Cong in berating Modi sarkar

Immediately after Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda presented the first rail budget of the Modi government, Rahul Gandhi termed it “hopeless”, adding that that “Congress ruled states were ignored in this budget”. He perhaps forgot that Maharastra was still a Congress ruled state and its state government was based in Mumbai. The Congress vice president also did not cite any particular reason why he thought rail budget was hopeless. But that gave a cue to the Delhi Congress leaders to go out and make loud protests against rail budget at Sadanand Gowda residence. Even uprooting minister’s name plate and trampling under their feet. Inside the Trinamool Congress perhaps belatedly realized that Gowda had taken a dig at their leader Mamata Banerjee when the rail minister said “the tariff policy adopted previously lacked rational approach…how revenue was frittered away, now, let me touch upon how the investments were misdirected. There has been focus on sanctioning projects rather than completing them.” [caption id=“attachment_1609999” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The man at the centre of the TMC storm[/caption] Also there was nothing in the rail budget for West Bengal. A strong contingent of TMC MPs created a ruckus inside the House. Their demand which was to ‘withdraw the budget’ was a fairly impossible one for any government to grant. Allegations and counter allegations poured in after TMC called Narendra Modi a “thief” and provoked the ruling party. The drama just spiraled out of control both inside and outside the house after that.  Apart from the now familiar sloganeering and verbal spats in the well of the Lok sabha,  the house was witness to some unprecedented theatrics in which MPs started running around Parliament House, jumped over the security barriers, frantically called media to make breaking news headlines, and made incoherent hysterical statements. In the midst of all the confusion, they also accused BJP Ghosi MP Harinayaran Rajbhar Inside the House, the Congress supported its old ally. Deputy leader of the Congress parliamentary party, Captain Amrinder Singh, said though he did not hear if anything un-parliamentary was spoken by the BJP MPs but his party supported Trinamool’s cause. Around the time all this happened, the Congress president was busy taking her grouse, the non allocation of Leader of Opposition post in Lok Sabha, to yet another level. She went to Rashtrapati Bhawan apparently to complain that Congress was not being recognised as the main opposition party and being granted the LoP post. Congress is doing everything other than officially staking a claim by writing a letter to the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Pressure tactics, played outside of the appropriate forum could boomerang on them but the Congress clearly believes that it will be able gain sympathy by crying hoarse in the public. The proceedings of the last two days show that there a clear confrontation path between the government, which has a brute majority, and the Congress, which has deficient numbers is brewing. On the opening day of the budget session Rahul Gandhi left his seat to stand in the aisle and join protests by his party colleagues on the price rise issue.. There also has to be some realignment of forces in opposition ranks. Could there be some fresh understanding between Congress and Trinamool? It’s too early to say at present. The first part of Gowda’s rail budget speech, speaking out on what went wrong in the last 10 years in Railways and how the populism path pursued by the previous regime was not sustainable beyond a point, has stirred erstwhile UPA ranks. His tall talk of bullet trains, the building up of a high speed diamond quadrilateral, attracting domestic and foreign private investment, and the selling of a “world class” dream in the long run have made the BJP’s rivals dub the budget both unrealistic, as well as a clear move towards privatisation.