Dismissing Opposition criticism on the Rail Budget, Congress today said the maiden exercise by Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was one of the best in independent India.
"It is my considered opinion that it is one of the best budgets ever tabled in Parliament," party spokesman Rashid Alvi told reporters rejecting as "baseless" Opposition charges that it was more a 'Rae Bareli' budget. Rae Bareli is the constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Alvi steered clear of questions whether Bansal's budget was far better than the one presented by Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy, who were made the Railway Ministers by their party Trinamool Congress before it parted ways with UPA.
Accusing the Opposition of playing negative politics by attacking the Budget, he said that Bansal has presented the Budget keeping into consideration the interests of the common man and therefore has not raised fares.
The Opposition slammed the Rail Budget, with BJP terming it as "pedestrian" and "discriminatory" while Left said it does not give any hope on Railways' future.
Key outside UPA allies Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party too were unhappy saying it was anti-poor and ignored areas of Uttar Pradesh which need rail infrastructure for economic development.
BJP leader Gopinath Munde said it was more of a 'Rae Bareli budget', claiming it has favoured Sonia Gandhi's constituency while SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said it was a "budget for the Congress".
