NEW DELHI: 'Bite the bullet', 'jaan hai to jahan hai'.... The hyperboles used by former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi in his Rail Budget speech boomeranged on the government as Mukul Roy of Trinamool Congress took charge on Tuesday amid the Opposition's bid to use the reshuffle to corner the government during the Budget debate.
BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan poked fun, saying Trivedi enthusiastically advocated tough measures to meet the challenge facing the railways. "He said bite the bullet, but the bullet hit him," she said, with loud laughter echoing in the Lok Sabha.
The Opposition's bid to corner the Centre over coalition troubles came amid indications that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's pressure was showing results. While the rollback of fare hike in suburban trains, second class and sleeper class appeared to find acceptance with the Centre, Congress launched a charm offensive to mollify the peeved ally.
Mahajan, the soft-spoken saffron leader who initiated the debate, gave enough reasons for the assembled MPs to engage in banter as she piled on the treasury benches' agony over Trinamool's decision to eject Dinesh Trivedi for suggesting fare hike. Quoting the former minister who assured railway safety as priority area by stating 'jaan hai to jahan hai', Mahajan said, "Unki kursi chali gayi".
The BJP waded in with full force into the Banerjee's authored chaos in the ruling coalition, with the unprecedented spectacle of a replacement in Roy piloting the discussion on Rail Budget presented by Trivedi. Roy had tough time after being administered oath as Cabinet minister by President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday morning at a thinly-attended function, facing uproarious scenes for absence when the debate started in the Lok Sabha. He rushed back and clarified he was in the Rajya Sabha for introduction as the new rail minister.
But the jokes did not stop. As Roy began to step out of the House with Mahajan in full flow, there were catcalls "Mr Minister where are you going?" "I am not going to stop now because this coming and going would continue," Mahajan said as she appeared to be predicting frequent changes in railways ministry.
Congress tried its best to put up a normal face. P C Chacko lauded Banerjee for laying out the roadmap for development of railways with Vision 2020 and even respected her concern for fare hike by calling her the leader of "poorest of poor", who singlehandedly threw out the Left government that had ruled Bengal for 34 years.
The effusive praise, while disagreeing with her contention that fare hike was on the higher side, appeared aimed at mollifying the volatile leader who has dashed to Delhi with the lament that Congress was playing the big brother to allies.
SP leader Reoti Raman Singh and BSP's Dara Singh demanded that fare hike for the classes used by poor should be withdrawn.
Earlier, Roy, after taking over as railways minister, said that "safety, security and punctuality would be my priority". Asked if there would be a rollback in passenger fare, he said he would speak in Parliament on it.
Rail Budget
Union Budget
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