New Delhi, February 26
Though generously peppered with poetry and allegories, Railway Minister Pawan Bansal’s maiden Budget speech failed to impress the Opposition, which went into turmoil today by the time the minister wrapped up his marathon 90-minute delivery.

“The speech was all poetry, few proposals,” a BJP member reasoned later.

“When you travel on the railway, And the line goes up the Hill, Just listen to the engine, As it pulls you with a will, Though it goes very slowly, It sings this little song. I think I can, I think I can ...And so it goes along”. — Railway Minister Pawan Bansal quoted from The Little Blue Engine by Christine Weatherly

That’s not to say the BJP didn’t enjoy the poetic passages Bansal quoted to make his speech palatable. The first passage came at the start right after the minister had thanked the PM, UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and former PM Rajiv Gandhi for all their blessings and the ministry itself.

Here he cited from Christine Weatherly’s “The Little Blue Engine” saying he remembered it when he saw newspaper pictures of a snow-covered train emerging from the Qazigund-Baramulla section, recently commissioned after much delay.

“When you travel on the railway, And the line goes up the Hill, Just listen to the engine, As it pulls you with a will, Though it goes very

slowly, It sings this little song. I think I can I think I can ...And so it goes along,” he said. Progressing into the speech, a first by any Congress minister in 17 years, Bansal cited allegories to make his points. So he said, “Sirf hungama khada karna mera maksad nahi...meri koshish hai ki soorat badalni chahiye...” when he was about to talk passenger facilities. He admitted that as a “frequent rail user, he often experienced lack of hygiene on trains himself.”

It was here that he managed the sole thud of applause from the Opposition benches which turned progressively impatient. Repeated mentions of Sonia’s Lok Sabha segment Rae Bareli and Bansal’s own constituency Chandigarh irked Opposition MPs, with Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, JDU’s Sharad Yadav, BJP’s Murali Manohar Joshi, CPM’s Basudeb Acharia and TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee protesting lack of attention to their segments.

“This is a Rae Bareli Budget, a farewell budget of the UPA,” was the take of the BJP led by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj who was all smiles when Bansal faced difficulties pronouncing names of South Indian cities.

Trinamool MPs were particularly agitated over Bansal dropping all of “Didi” Mamata Banerjee’s pet proposals.