Politics

Ashwini Vaishnaw Downplays Rail Safety Concerns, Accuses Congress of Instilling Fear

On Thursday, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched a fierce attack against the opposition’s worries about the current status of Indian railway services and the rising number of rail accidents. “Those who are yelling here ought to answer for their inability to install Automatic Train Protection (ATP), even for a distance of one kilometer, throughout their fifty-eight years in office. They dare to ask questions now,” Vaishnaw stated in the Lok Sabha. “Now that the accident numbers have dropped from 0.19 to0.03, they put such blame,” the former bureaucrat turned politician remarked. “When Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister, she used to give the accident numbers that decreased from 0.24 to 0.19 these people used to clap in the House.”

The minister charged that the Congress party was using social media to disseminate misleading information and cause needless anxiety among the millions of people who use trains every day. Will this be how this nation is run? Congress propagandizes misleading information on social media with the aid of its troll army. “Are they attempting to instill fear in the minds of the two crore individuals who commute by train on a daily basis?” he asked. Gaurav Gogoi, the leader of the Congress, retaliated on Vaishnaw for putting the blame for the failings on the past rather than taking ownership of them.

Gogoi told reporters as he left the House, “We are seeing a new tradition today, that the BJP Ministers do not take the moral responsibility of their failure and instead accuse the history.” Goigoi referred to Vaishnaw as a “derailment minister” and cited the previous rail disasters, such as the fatal Balasore accident that claimed the lives of about 300 passengers.

“In the past two months, about four freight trains have derailed, resulting in about four fatalities. Ten individuals lost their lives in the Kanchenjunga Express incident in June. These instances have occured in the last two months. The Railway Minister has neither resigned or accepted moral responsibility in spite of this. About 300 passengers lost their lives in Balasore last year, according to Gogoi.

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“He is the minister of derailments, not the ministry of railroads. He ought to step down. However, it is BJP tradition for them to shirk moral responsibility, whether as Minister of Education or as Minister of Railways. The leaders of all INDIA alliance parties left in protest with their reaction,” he continued.