Railway success is not one man show: Congress

NEW DELHI: The political assertion by its allies has not dented the ���big player��� vanity of Congress. The party on Thursday displayed a thirst to live dangerously when it ran down most of its ���allies���.

Miffed with RJD���s attempts to undermine Congress��� role in the ���secular��� side, Congress usurped Mr Lalu Prasad���s railway turnaround. ���Does a single person run the Railways? This is a narrow thought process. The success is not the authorship of a single person, but the Congress-led UPA,��� Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

He used the same logic to appropriate all credit for the ���success��� of the rural employment guarantee scheme. The nodal department is manned by RJD nominee, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. Till the other day, Congress was willing to share the credit with the minister, who has been performing reasonably well in the rural development ministry.

This process of grabbing credit for central schemes began with the Congress manifesto. The party sought to present all achievements of the coalition government as its own. Senior party leaders accepted that Congress��� effort to keep all the credit for itself has upset the allies.

That Congress also believes that it has the sole right to distribute the secular badge was evident when the party spokesperson claimed that Trinamool Congress had to wait for two years for secular baptism. ���These parties (those who want to do business with Congress) have to prove that in thought, word and deed, they have completely severed ties with the communal forces. TMC, which is part of the original Congress family, had to wait for two years,��� Mr Singhvi said.

Congress also continued to claim that the terms of alliance will be decided by it. ���We will not give veto power to any party that is willing to associate with us,��� the spokesman said.