Opinion Looking for avenues

Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has to present the railway budget shortly and the joke making the rounds is that he is stuck between a rock and a hard place

Coomi Kapoor

February 12, 2012 12:49 AM IST First published on: Feb 12, 2012 at 12:49 AM IST

Looking for avenues

Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has to present the railway budget shortly and the joke making the rounds is that he is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Party president Mamata Banerjee does not want him to raise railway fares,while Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is dead set against any bailout from the finance ministry. Trivedi,a businessman before he joined politics,hopes to raise revenues for the budget through a series of innovative measures. He is contemplating setting up a Railway Station Development Corporation which will commercially develop all station premises to earn as much as 30 per cent of the revenues. Another idea is to raise money through private catering,instead of free meals on Rajdhanis and other trains.

Overshadowing others

Digvijay Singh is riding high these days. Rahul Gandhis advance announcement that Amarinder Singh would be made chief minister of Punjab was reportedly at Singhs suggestion. For the Uttar Pradesh election,Singh has backed Beni Prasad Vermas choice of candidates even though there is much resentment among old timers in the party. To demonstrate to the Delhi high command that Singh is getting too big for his boots,his detractors recently brought back a poster from Hyderabad which hails Singhs visit to the city. The poster has an enormous photograph of Singh,larger even than that of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy,while the photos of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are postage stamp size. This despite the fact that Singh is not even the general secretary in-charge of the state.

2G,but only 1 in

At the DMK general council in Chennai last week,a strong anti-Congress undercurrent was apparent. When delegate N Jothi commented that Dr Manmohan Singh was not a political person and it was doubtful whether he was a successful economist considering the state of the economy,Dayanidhi Maran chided him saying that the PMs name should not be dragged into the discussions. Many DMK members,however,countered Maran. They were keen to vent their anger against the Congress,whom they dubbed an undependable ally. A common refrain was DMK + Congress= 2G,so why has no Congressperson been arrested by the CBI?

Isolated in party

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who stayed away from the party national executive and has so far refrained from campaigning for the ongoing assembly elections,finds himself isolated in the party high command though he remains the favourite of the cadres. The attitude of the BJP central leadership is reflected in its failure to back Modi on opposition to a proposal for a General Services Tax to be implemented in the States. It prefers to side with Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi who heads the empowered committee of state finance ministers. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has made clear that there is no place in the party for those who are not team players.

Change in headgear

A delegation of the Indian Coffee Board employees called on Commerce Minister Anand Sharma to air their grievances. Sharma announced that each employee would be entitled to a new suit,a pair of shoes and a Himachali cap. The new clothes are different from the existing uniform of the Coffee Board and it is unclear whether they can be worn to work. One clear instruction is that the new cap,which is from Sharmas home state Himachal Pradesh,will replace the old fashioned pugree,which has been the characteristic headgear of the Coffee Board waiters since its inception.