By IANS
New Delhi : Political leaders and ministers vied with one another to give their reactions on the railway budget soon after it was presented by Lalu Prasad Tuesday. However, unlike his colleagues and his predecessors, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declined to speak to the media about it.
According to sources, his staff and some of the ministers close to him tried to persuade the prime minister to speak to the media, which has been “troubling” the officials including his media advisor Sanjaya Baru for a “byte” from the prime minister.
“It is Laluji’s budget. Why should I comment?” he is believed to have said. However, according to his personal aides, Manmohan Singh was “happy” with the “popular budget” presented by Lalu Prasad.
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Rahul Gandhi has no time for Congressmen?
The excitement over Rahul Gandhi’s appointment as general secretary seems to be over for Congress workers. The party workers, who were overjoyed at his decision to take up an active role in the Congress affairs, now complain in private that he does not “give his ear” to the “real Congress workers”.
“Rahulji does not give appointment to Congress activists. He has time only for non-Congress people,” complained a young Congress worker from Tamil Nadu.
However, he blamed Rahul’s “office” and his personal staff for it. “I know Rahulji cannot be blamed for this. His staff controls his appointments,” said the man who has come to the national capital to meet the leader.
“He takes up the issue of sugar farmers, leather manufacturers and farmers. But he should meet Congress workers too,” he said.
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PMO minister wants Tripura to be model state
Tripura may be a small state with just two MPs in the Lok Sabha and a 60-member assembly. But Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Congress general secretary in charge of Tripura affairs, appears to have been completely bowled over by the state.
Chavan, who managed the Congress election campaign for the Feb 23 state elections, now wants every other state to make Triprua a model. “Election work in Tripura was a pleasure,” he says. According to Chavan, Tripura may be the only place in the world where 99.5 percent of voters had photo identity cards.
“Can you believe even election rallies in a village used to be as long as four kilometres – that too without disturbing any traffic? Why can’t so-called developed states follow Tripura?” he asks.
He is all praise for the Election Commission too. “There were new electronic voting machines on which only three votes could be registered in a minute (preventing one person from casting more than one vote).”
Chavan now hopes Karnataka, where the Congress is preparing for elections under his supervision, would be in the same situation.