Party,ministry

Mamata Banerjee,Union railway minister,does not care about the railways her primary and,some would say,only charge at the moment. Yet,she is most willing to extract every bit of personal service she can out of the same. Managing coalition partners in an age of delicately balanced,multi-party coalition governments is difficult and,unsurprisingly,regional satraps get away with immensely more latitude than they should. Nor has the Congress,as leader of the UPA,been doing as much as it should to rein them in. But then,Banerjee is in a class of her own. Just how many railway accidents,major and minor,have already happened on her watch? And what has she done to redress the battered image and operational capability of the railways? She does not even bother to attend office as a rule.

Yet,this same indifferent,absentee railway minister deployed two companies of the Railway Protection Force RPF for her security during her August 9 rally at Lalgarh. If that is evidence of her readiness to treat the railways as her personal fiefdom,it was not her only offence. The RPF deployment at Lalgarh was made without informing the Union home ministry and the West Bengal police the latter being officially responsible for her security and maintenance of order at the venue,the former being responsible for clearing any deployment of Central paramilitary personnel. Banerjee didnt think seeking that permission was necessary,or perhaps she forgot the RPF is a Central paramilitary force. However,it is not as if she welcomes calls for deploying or dispatching the RPF elsewhere. She had refused to spare RPF personnel for poll duty in Jharkhand and Maharashtra,till the home ministry had to categorically ask her to. She didnt think it worthwhile to release RPF personnel for an FBI-sponsored training programme on railway security,of all things,in the US.

Banerjees style is reminiscent of feudal politics at a time when our national politics has long begun directing itself out of old moulds towards certain solidifying aspirational goals. Shorn of any sense of responsibility to ones charge as a cabinet minister,to ones cabinet colleagues,to ones constituents,to those using the service ones ministry provides. Above all,Banerjees politics is oblivious to protocol and political decency.