Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The discussion on the Railway Budget in Lok Sabha on Tuesday had MPs taking swipes at each other,forcing railway minister Mamata Banerjee to join issue,at times snapping in anger,at times in bemusement,with Opposition MPs.
Ananth Kumar,BJP leader and MP from Bangalore (South) who initiated the debate,accused Banerjee of reducing the Railways to a modern-day variant of the East India Company,implying that most developmental measures finding mention in the ministers Budget,were meant for West Bengal and east Indian states”.
You should have a pan-Indian outlook,but your Budget reads like an election manifesto… Of the 309 model stations proposed in your Budget,40 are in and around Kolkata,and 109 in West Bengal,” Kumar said.
When Banerjee repliedit was for MPs to suggest names of more stations which will be duly incorporated in the proposed scheme”,Kumar said the Railways should be conducting this exercise. He accused her ofhaving a West Bengal bias”.
Visibly upset,Banerjee told him:Dont insult Bengal.” He retorted:Dont insult Bangalore,” suggesting that the Karnataka capital had not been accorded its due place in the Railway Budget.
Ananth Kumar then said heloved Rabindranath Tagore and Vande Mataram more than Mamata.” To this,Banerjee said:I love Bengal,I love Bangalore,and this entire exercise is for a larger entity called India”.
Continuing with the discussion,Congress MP from Nagpur,Vilas Muttemwar,while praising the Budget,inadvertently referred to Mumbai as Bombay”,prompting BJP MP Gopinath Munde to demand an immediate correction.
While MPs went on to air state-based grievances,former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had his own say later in the day:Lalu never discriminated against other states (during his tenure). I was also told about the discrimination against Bihar (in the present Budget). But it is not West Bengal,nor is it a Gurjjar-like agitation. When Railway property is harmed,it is my body that burns. It is neither mine,nor yours. It is Indian railways.”
