19 MPs kill a Budget

So,when all is said and done,the lion’s share of the blame will fall on the Congress. It cannot trot out the we-are-in-a-coalition excuse. It’s for the Congress to manage the coalition. The prime minister and his cabinet failed to stand up for the hapless Trivedi when the West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool chief demanded his head. His was a budget the PM himself had praised. Second,the UPA could not ensure Trivedi stayed on as railway minister till end-March,after seeing the government through the parliamentary debate on the budget. Third,the cabinet was forced to take on board Roy,who,as MoS for railways,had openly defied the PM last year by refusing to visit a train crash site. Finally,despite reports that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would address the debate on the rail budget,it was Roy who was allowed to announce the roll back,put on hold the independent tariff regulatory authority proposed by Trivedi to de-link railway fares from politics,and scrap the expansion of the railway board.

For the record,therefore,the PM has allowed himself and his cabinet to suffer a gigantic insult and damage at the hands of an ally that has torpedoed,relentlessly,every major policy initiative. The Congress has also failed so far to work out an alternative with the SP or the BSP to bypass the TMC’s blackmailing and bullying. Given its deep coalition crisis and policy paralysis,does UPA 2 propose to pass the remainder of its term put upon by every despotic demand without a rudimentary political will to do what it knows is necessary? Maybe,Mamata Banerjee has an answer.