The edit “Sliding further downhill” (March 9) and Sunanda K Datta-Ray’s column “Waiting for the man” (March 10) direct the blame for thwarting fiscal and safety reforms in the Railways towards Mamata Banerjee. But should not the onus of this sorry state of affairs be on the prime minister, who is steadily abdicating his responsibility to govern the nation in favour of his coalition partners to save his government and, thus, his chair? Even allowing for the compulsions of coalition politics, there should be a limit, based on the principle of collective responsibility, on the degree of freedom a minister can enjoy in his portfolio. If the railway minister cannot frame his Budget without a prior nod from his party boss, overlooking the need of the ministry and overriding the broad directives of the prime minister, where is the secrecy in ministerial working and commitment to the Constitution? How long will this continue and at what cost to the nation?
Y G Chouksey Pune
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