Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Congress Lok Sabha floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament on Wednesday (PTI Photo)
Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Congress Lok Sabha floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge traded charges over the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project on Wednesday. As Goyal got aggressive while giving a detailed reply to what he called “11 questions” asked by Kharge in one go, the Congress leader told Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, “This is not fair. This is not the way to reply.” Goyal shot back: “Well, you ask such questions and I answer you in the same voice.”
The question had been asked by Kirit Somaiya of the BJP. Kharge claimed that Somaiya’s question was intended to brief the House on the whole bullet train project. A former Railways minister himself, Kharge told Goyal: “This idea (of bullet train) is not yours. It has been there – you can check the file.”
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Pointing out that a 500-km train corridor was being built at a cost of Rs 1.10 lakh crore, Kharge said, “The cost aside, no ordinary passenger would travel by it. He would have to pay more than the airfare.”
This money, Kharge said, could have been spent on construction of thousands of kilometres of railway tracks, or opening up of new divisions. While pointing out that Kharge is a senior leader, Goyal said the Congress leader needs know how proceedings of the House are conducted. He said that he would respond to all 11 issues raised by him so that the “difference between our government and the previous regime is exposed”.
Goyal alleged that railway projects were sanctioned under Congress governments keeping in view “narrow political gains”, and that Railways ministers sanctioned projects in their own constituencies. He said that the project had been funded by a 50-year loan from Japan for an interest of just 0.1 per cent and there was a moratorium on its repayment for 15 years. He also took on previous Congress-led governments at the Centre.
After Goyal’s remarks led to protests from Congress MPs, and BJP members countered them, order was restored when the Speaker moved to the next question.