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ShareNew Delhi: There have always been sceptics of Lalu Prasad's railway turnaround story. On Friday, Mamata Banerjee joined their ranks in spectacular fashion.
Towards the end of her populist budget, the railway minister announced that she would be ordering a white paper on railway finances in the last five years and a Vision 2020 document.
Friction between the two started while Banerjee was delivering her speech, during which Prasad kept muttering to CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia that many of her announcements had originally been his.
When an irritated Banerjee said, "Laluji, I respect you, I never interrupted you, please do not interrupt me," Prasad replied, "Please speak, nobody is stopping you."
Later in the day, Lalu Prasad held a press conference where he minced no words in criticising his successor. "Madam minister is questioning me on railway finances when she, in 2002, could not even pay dividends," he said. "Her budget is a complex-ridden budget... I don't know, maybe she wants to override the turnaround story, maybe she is complexed or confused."
Prasad said he was not afraid of the white paper. "We have been audited by the CAG (comptroller and auditor-general) and the railway committee of Parliament," he said, "[Even] IIM Ahmedabad and Harvard have studied the turnaround."
He said, with a laugh: "I have a feeling she will use the present sound financial base of the railways for her Vision 2020 document."
On Banerjee consulting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee about the budget, Prasad said: "I don't think there is anything political behind this."
On the minister attacking him about "unrealistic expectations" in February's interim rail budget, Prasad said: "When the whole world is suffering from an economic slowdown, what can I do?"
Then he shot back: "Someone should ask the minister how she will run the double-decker trains she has promised. On Indian tracks, it is almost impossible to do so... [If I were the minister] I would have made sure that the bullet train made its debut this year."
Banerjee later told reporters that the white paper was not a witch-hunt, but a "routine assessment of finances". "I have no differences with him," she said. "He is a friend."
