The Flying Ranee

The honourable Union railway minister and Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, is on the fast track. Make no mistake about that. L...

The honourable Union railway minister and Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, is on the fast track. Make no mistake about that. Last week saw frentic action in Rail Bhavan, with at least seven members of the Railway Board summarily air-dropped over Kolkata to sort out the performance of the Eastern Railway, the South-Eastern Railway and the Calcutta Metro and look into their safety provisions, cleanliness and the state of their infrastructure. All this in a span of four hours. But that is vintage Mamatadi for you. Her impetuous, even startling, ways have now become the stuff of legend.

She has stormed into the well of Parliament, danced on cars, confronted the West Bengal police by squatting firmly on public roads and, on one particularly memorable occasion, surprised her Parliamentary colleagues by getting herself carried into the House on a stretcher.

Just a few days after her swearing in this time saw her embroiled in a rather nasty spat with NDA colleague, Nitesh Kumar, over a room inParliament House that the former railway minister had claimed as his. Didi, when she learnt that Kumar was in no mood to oblige by moving out, made it known in characteristic style that she will either operate from Kumar8217;s chamber or from Central Hall, nothing else would do. Much of Mamata Banerjee8217;s antics are performed for the benefit of the media and the fact that she has even opened a 8220;Press corner8221; in front of her office in Rail Bhavan signals how seriously she plans to take this business of image building. The fact is that Didi is working to a fairly ambitious plan.

Her ultimate destination is not Parliament House in Delhi, it is Writers8217; Building in Kolkata. Once this is comprehended, it is easy to realise that the stormy performances in Delhi are being staged not for general consumption but with an eye on the West Bengal electorate. These are the compulsions th-at drive her to work very seriously on bringing her much-publicised 8220;West Bengal package8221; to fruition. She hopes that it will win manyhearts and minds and provide much employment for restless youth back home which should, in turn, catapult her into the seat Jyoti Basu has been occupying for over two decades.

But there is a simple point to be made at this juncture. While the rest of the country may sympathise with Mamata Banerjee8217;s political designs, it nevertheless expects her to run the Indian Rail-ways, of which she is the present ministerial custodian, as just that 8212; the Indian Railways. Not as the West Bengal Railways. True, there have been Railway ministers who have consciously favoured their constituencies when it came to building and augmenting railway facilities. But while they may have received a few votes for their attempts at patronage, they stand perpetually suspect in the eyes of the nation for their partisanship. Didi would be advised to keep this in mind before she boards the Rajdhani to Writers8217; Building.