On the poll track

On the poll track

Quite obviously, the all-party meeting called by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss the Railway Budget on Friday was no routine pre-Budget consultation exercise. It follows on the heels of the prime minister’s suggestion that the time had come to revise railway passenger fares. It was convened mere days before Parliament meets for the Budget session. In the circumstances, both the timing of the meet and the very public airing of its conclusion reek of political brinkmanship. "Ninety per cent of the parties", Banerjee smugly informed the media, "were in favour of a pro-people approach", read no hike in passenger fares. It is clear that Mamata Banerjee is attempting to pre-empt a hike in rail fares and that she is using the opposition’s shoulders to shoot at her own government.

It is easy to see just why Banerjee is so agitated at the prospect of a hike in passenger fares at this juncture. Throughout her tenure at the Centre, she has made no secret of the fact that West Bengal is her overweening, if not only, concern, that the capital’s Rail Bhavan is only the stopover on her way to Writer’s Building in Calcutta. Now, with assembly elections in her state round the corner due in April-May Banerjee is worried at the setback any fare-hike might render to her well-laid plans. It would not do to be seen to preside over such an unpopular decision on the eve of elections. For a leader who has thrived on a particularly populist brand of politics, it would be nothing short of harakiri. When such a hike seemed imminent therefore in the wake of the prime minister’s broad hints in this regard and the economic advisory council’s reported recommendation to reduce subsidies Banerjee decided she must act to protect her pro-poor credentials from her government’s policies. And so the high-profileall-party huddle and the loud invocation of the "pro-people approach".

Given her past record, it should come as no surprise, perhaps, that the Trinamool chief has overlooked the impropriety involved in soliciting support against her own government from across the political fence. Be it her compulsive ‘Article 356-in-Bengal-or-else’ threats to the Vajpayee government or her resignation drama on the issue of the hike in oil prices last year, Banerjee has consistently shown that she cares little for political nicety or propriety in her single-minded pursuit of her populist agenda.

As Mamata Banerjee counts the days to the assembly polls in Bengal, it would be unrealistic to expect her to spare a thought, much less a vision, for the Indian Railways. Today, the railways is in the throes of a severe crisis. Over the years, it has steadily lost its market share to the roads from 80 per cent in the 1950s, the railways has retained only 40 per cent of the traffic in the 90s. One of the reasons for this has been the rising cost of freight which has been used to cross-subsidise passenger fares which remain one of the lowest in the world. The time has come for passenger fares to be rationalised. But one can be sure that the railway minister is not listening.