Mamata Banerjee criticises Railway Budget, says government selling nation through FDI

Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday equated the Narendra Modi government's decision to open the door of Railways to FDI in its maiden budget to that of selling the nation to outsiders using that mechanism.

"There is FDI in retail, defence, now in Railways, they are literally selling the country by bringing in FDI, this is very easy," Banerjee said at a rally in Hooghly. She asked : "Will you sell your daughter to ameliorate your food pangs? Why did you (BJP) make such tall promises. They (BJP) should have said before the elections that they will hand over the country to FDI. What will happen to the domestic industrialists?"

"We forget momentarily and vote them to power. People have done the right thing as they were fed up with the UPA government and had no other alternative. In Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Odisha the situation was different as we had alternative. That's why I had talked about Federal Front had that happened this situation would not have arised," she added.

She came down heavily on the Centre over neglecting West Bengal in the Railway Budget. "If my state (West Bengal) is neglected and my brothers and sisters being denied their rights I will have to speak up for them," She further added.

Earlier today Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda presented his maiden Railway Budget where he introduced a slew of reform measures to modernise Indian Railways.