Railway Minister - Then and Now
IN 1956, Lal Bahdur Shastry resigned from his post as Railway minister accepting moral and constitutional responsibility for a rail accident. While speaking in Parliament on the incident, Nehru stated that he was accepting the resignation because it would set an example in constitutional propriety and not because Shastri was in any way responsible for the accident.
Today it is very difficult to get rid of a minister accused with the worst of crimes. Many of them are going straight from their ministerial bungalows into the Tihar jail.
But the height of irresponsible behaviour was when we witnessed the MOS in the Rail Ministry Mukul Roy refusing to visit an accident site as, “I am not the railway minister, the Prime Minister is”.
And more pathetic is the affairs of the Rail Board where the crucial post of Member Traffic is vacant! And so are two other posts.