Congress gets Railways after 16 long years

The exit of Trinamool Congress from the UPA II is a blessing for the Congress party as it has got Railway Ministry after a gap of 16 long years.

Soon after Mukul Roy, Union Railways Minister and a senior TMC leader resigned, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave Union Roads and Highways Minister CP Joshi the additional charge of crucial portfolio as the new railways minister.

For long, railways has been used as a platform to announce populist schemes by political parties. And for the last 16 decades this opportunity went to coalition partners to further their populist designs.

C. K. Jaffer Sharief was the last cabinet minister from the party to hold the portfolio from 1991 to 1995 while Suresh Kalmadi was the last Congress leader to serve as the minister of state for railways in 1995- 96.

Announcing popular schemes coalition partners drove railways ministry to their bastion. This included Mamata Banerjee (October 1999, May 2001 and May 2009-11), Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal-United (March 1998-August 1999  & March 2001-2004) Ramvilas Paswan of Lok Jan Shakti (June 1996-March 1998), Lalu Prasad Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal (May 2004-May 2009), Dinesh Trivedi of TMC July 11-March 12) and Mukul Roy of TMC (March-Sept 2012).

However it is not clear if Joshi will hold the portfolio temporarily or till 2014 election as a cabinet reshuffle is expected soon.

There are several issues confronting railways-safety, investment, freight, earnings, public-private partnership etc.

With the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seeking nationwide support for a second tranche of reforms that was unveiled last fortnight with opening of FDI in retail and diesel price hike, Railways too will play a crucial part in accelerating reforms.

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Congress gets Railways after 16 long years