Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Having sacrificed Dinesh Trivedi,will the UPA stick up for the Rail Budget?
After four days of limbo,with the new rail budget and the stability of the UPA both being put into question,Dinesh Trivedi has quit his job as Railways Minister. He will now stay on merely as a loyal soldier of the Trinamool Congress. While Trivedi may have no option but to give in to Mamata Banerjees diktat,the UPAs inability to stand up to her is pathetic. Instead of defending Trivedis necessary plan for the financially troubled railways one that was presented in Parliament as the UPAs vision,not just Trivedis and one that a minimally reform-minded government would back to the hilt,the prime minister and his cabinet have cast the issue as the Trinamools internal squabble,mumbling vague regrets about his departure. Under the UPAs watch,a minister has lost his job for doing the only right thing in the circumstances.
This rail budgets decisions are inescapable if the railways are to remain safe,become modern and financially sustainable. Now that it has sacrificed Trivedi,will the UPA have the courage to insulate the rail budget from the Trinamools pressure? Mukul Roy,dont forget,is the same man who defied the prime minister when he was asked to visit the site of a train accident in Assam. He was MoS for railways at the time. Now,he will be at the helm good luck to the UPA.
