New Delhi: Congress General Secretary
Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday earned accolades from Railway Minister
Mamata Banerjee for practising austerity by travelling in a
chair car of the Shatabdi Express from here to Ludhiana.
"It is a good thing. Rahul is a good boy," she told
reporters here welcoming Gandhi`s decision to travel in the
chair car shunning the executive class to which he is entitled
as an MP.
Reacting to former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad`s
suggestion that Ministers should travel by third class like
Mahatma Gandhi did, she shot back saying "had he done so
earlier, I would have been happy. I have never seen a railway
saloon."
Saloons are special coaches meant for VVIPs, Ministers
and members of Railway board to travel.
On BJP`s charges that she has not been attending
Cabinet meetings regularly, Banerjee said "I am not answerable
to them".
"Perhaps CPI-M asked the BJP to raise the issue. This
is wrong. During Parliament session, I attended all the
Cabinet meetings. There are so many ministers including
P Chidambaram who have not attended all the Cabinet meetings.
What I do is with the consent of the Prime Minister," she
said.
Bureau Report
