TMC MP Suman comes out in support of Trivedi, tells Mamata to give space to government

Kolkata, Mar 17 (ANI): Trinamool Congress (TMC) member of parliament Kabir Suman on Saturday spoke in favour of embattled Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, saying West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinmool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee should give the Indian government the space it needs and deserves.

"I wish she would give the Indian government the space it needs and deserves. If she tries to call terms from Kolkata, then it would be ironical," said Suman.

Suman further said the Rail Budget was a set of proposals that needed to be debated and not a set of instructions for immediate implementation, which should have been handled in a democratic way.

"The honourable Railway Minister Shri Dinesh Trivedi tabled a set of proposals. There was no hard and fast rule that you have to obey it. You know it's not like that. So, as an experienced politician, the honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal should have handled the matter in a more charitable, more generous, more democratic way," added.

Suman also added that the entire episode had hurt the Indian democracy and was not supposed to be brought out in public.

"People could wait a little, say, till the end of this budget (session), and then it could be discussed in different ways, behind doors, so to say, in a closed room, in camera, instead of doing that in front of the world. To do this to a Railway Minister is an insult. It hurts the Indian democracy," said Suman.

Trivedi is in the eye of a storm of his own party, the Trinamool Congress, ever since he presented the Railway Budget for 2012-13.

Mamata Banerjee had earlier demanded that Trivedi be sacked for snapping an eight-year populist trend to not raise passenger train fares.

She demanded that another TMC leader Mukul Roy, who is presently the Minister of State for Shipping, be appointed as the new Railway Minister. (ANI)