New Delhi, February 25: It was a day of unlimited “Didigiri” in the Lok Sabha. Mamata Banerjee, who is “Didi” (elder sister) to her supporters in West Bengal, was at her feisty best on Wednesday, as she tried to silence MPs clamouring for their constituencies’ share in the Railway Budget.
As the railway minister ignored the commotions around and read out her 47-page speech in nearly two hours, her spirited efforts – peppered with intermittent cajoling and hollering – won her pats from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Banerjee indeed played elder sister to the complaining MPs and confronted their continuous barbs that she had focused only on West Bengal to secure her party’s political interests ahead of the 2011 assembly polls in the Left Front-ruled state.
“Where is Cuttack? Where is Jabalpur? Tell me,” she asked the opposition MPs, after stating that Indian Railways would set up four multi-disciplinary training centres in Cuttack (Orissa), Coochbehar (West Bengal), Malda (West Bengal) and Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh).
But that did not stop the din in the Lok Sabha. Whenever the railway minister announced a new project or a new rail line somewhere in West Bengal, Opposition MPs tried to create a ruckus.
But the “Mamata Express” went on, with a few interruptions when she sternly asked noisemakers not to shout and wait for her to spell out the projects she had lined up for their states.
The railway minister also repeatedly held her budget speech up to show to the angry MPs that she had many more projects to announce.
“Don’t shout,” she told an agitated MP, adding, “if you don’t stop shouting, I will cut this (cancel the project in your constituency).” She even threatened to stop the budget speech and lay it on the table of the House if the din continues. At one point, she told an MP that she would include his constituency in a new project if he stops shouting.
Sonia, who hardly displays her emotions in the House, was also seen smiling repeatedly as she supportively watched Banerjee confronting Opposition MPs.
Banerjee triggered laughter with her ‘Benglicised’ pronunciation of names of some places in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
But she did apologise. “My pronunciation is bad. I apologise for that. Please help me,” she said and added that it could be worse if the MPs continue to make noise.
But, significantly, Banerjee’s predecessor in the Railway Ministry and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad did not interrupt her even once on Wednesday, in sharp contrast to the scene on July 3, 2009, the day she had presented the last budget.
-Agencies