Rail Budget: PM claims authorship of austere package

NEW DELHI: On a day when his railway minister D V Sadananda Gowda came under fire for not presenting a populist budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up to the plate to fully own up the austere package, saying it was the need of the hour.

"This budget will help accelerate the country's growth, modernize railways and provide safety and better amenities to passengers," the PM said in a robust defence which was quickly interpreted as a pointer of what might unfold on Thursday when the Union Budget is due.

Complimenting their finance ministers and railway ministers after they present their respective budgets is par for the course for the prime minister of the day. Modi's stood out because it went beyond proforma praise and marked a public advocacy of his theme that people will have to swallow bitter pills if the economy is to recover.

Modi's strong justification, amid Congress's accusation that his government had subverted the socialist model of growth and Trinamool members forcing suspension of proceedings in Lok Sabha, was a clear indication that the rollback of the hike in suburban train fares may have been an aberration. It fits well with Modi's timetable of focusing on development for four years of his tenure, leaving vote-mopping populism for the last one. The detour from populism comes at a time when important elections with huge stakes for BJP have begun to loom on the horizon, and amplify the government's intent.

In his remarks, Modi implied that his government would view the national transporter differently from the predecessors. "Railways has a major role to play in national development. It would have taken the country to a new growth trajectory had it been fully harnessed. Anyways, it is better late than never. I am sure that the path we have embarked upon in 2014 to reach a high level of growth will satisfy passengers while reinforcing the confidence of those engaged with the country's development," he said.

In an obvious reference to the penchant of recent railway ministers to pamper their states at the cost of the long-term interests of the transporter, Modi suggested that the budget would put an end to the process of what has been called provincialization of railways. "It is after a long gap that the country will get to feel that our railway is indeed Indian Railways. The past few decades were marked by a trend towards fragmentation where people would focus on bits. It is the first time that the budget has been formulated factoring in the need for the comprehensive development of India as a whole," the PM said.

Modi said though the government got little time to prepare the budget, the initiatives pointed to the direction that it wants to take the railways ahead. Saying that ad-hoc measures would not have sufficed, he said the budget laid the foundation of a modern network.

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