The annual railway budget speech has become an exercise for ministers to burnish their political image and dress themselves up as pro-people, at the cost of the institution they head. The Economic Survey and the Union Budget speech are important events in the economic calendar of the country. The latter is to India what its president’s State of the Union address is to the United States. Through association with these events, the railway budget speech gets its share of public glare, which it would not otherwise have. Two days before the Union Budget, for two hours past noon, the nation is a captive audience to the railway minister. It is their day under the sun.
Even responsible ministers have to make placatory announcements, yielding to the burden of expectations and pressure from lawmakers from their own and other parties. If they do not oblige they are accused of being elitist and uncaring.
They can, of course, make anxious statements about the poor financial health of the railways and the necessity of conserving resources for investment in projects, that are not only profitable but also serve the economy by moving goods and people at lower cost over long distances. Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress chose the latter course on 14 March 2012.
The choice before me is either just to keep the system dragging or build a new, safe and modern, passenger and freight transportation system which would contribute at least 2 to 2.5% to the GDP of the nation as against less than 1% at present... I am glad to inform this august House... that I have chosen the latter.Dinesh Trivedi, former Railway Minister