After dubbing Mamata Banerjee’s Rail Budget as a “document prepared in haste” and a “Budget without any vision,” the BJP will use the discussion on the Railway Budget to reassure its middle class constituency that it has not reneged on its commitment to reforms even as it attacks the Budget on key areas like safety measures and track upgradation.

Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, who briefed the media on the Budget, said the Railway Minister “had not paid adequate attention to railway security and expansion of railway tracks” and that while “Mamata was expected to introduce revolutionary reforms, her document ultimately read a fantasy ride, while her speech itself appeared like a fairy tale”.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley termed the Railway Budget a “routine exercise” and a “Budget without a vision”.

BJP president Rajnath Singh said the Budget would be known “only when it is actually implemented”.

Both Jaitley and Sushma said there had been no significant expansion of railway tracks since the days of the British, something that had not been addressed in this Budget as well.

The BJP is likely to use the debate to address its middle class constituency when it will cite case studies from across the world to argue that “private players have always been a key component of the railway experience” and “governments have inherently been bad providers of hospitality”. “If Railways have hospitality and operations as two key components, governments have inherently been bad providers of hospitality... How can the government look after hospitality,” said Jaitley, who will lead the party charge on the debate on the Railway Budget in the Rajya Sabha. “We are still far away from making rail travel an experience to be cherished,” he said.

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