‘Modi said guilty will be punished, should start with Vaishnaw’: Congress slams Govt over Odisha train accident

“PM Narendra Modi, who said that the ‘guilty would be punished’, should start with Vaishnaw,” Khera said. “Unequivocally and unambiguously we demand the resignation of the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Nothing short of it,” the Congress leaders added.

Earlier, Opposition parties, such as TMC, Shiv Sena (UBT) and CPI, had called upon the Modi government to own up and demanded Vaishnaw’s resignation.

Both Gohil and Khera questioned the BJP-led Central government and said, “PM Modi, himself is responsible for a green-flagging spree of Vande Bharat Express trains. He himself is responsible for creating this ‘all is well’ facade in the Indian Railways, even as crucial, sensitive, and critical infrastructure of the Indian Railway languishes in neglect”.

“We demand that despite multiple warnings by the CAG, Parliamentary Standing Committees, and experts – why did the Modi government not spend on sprucing up Railway Safety?” they said, news agency PTI reported.

The Congress leaders also asked when will the government will implement the much-hyped KAVACH Anti-Collision system nationwide, after testing.

“We don’t look for political scores during human tragedy. Madhavrao Scindia, Nitish Kumar, and Lal Bahadur Shastri gave resignations on moral grounds. Railways Minister should take responsibility but Modi and morals travel in opposite directions,” they said.

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who reached Odisha’s Balasore district earlier today, said that there was “little mismanagement” which led to the loss of many lives. “A number of precious lives could have otherwise been saved,” he told news agency PTI.

In a tweet, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said, “Recall that Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned in the wake of the Nov 1956 Ariyalur train disaster & Nitish Kumar did so following the ghastly Aug 1999 Gaisal train tragedy,” he said in a tweet.

Yesterday we were quiet out of respect. Today at 12 noon my colleagues @shaktisinhgohil & @Pawankhera will ask searching questions of the Modi Govt on railway management, especially on safety that has been compromised in the PR campaign of the PM and the Railway Minister.…

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 4, 2023

On Saturday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the victims, remarked in the presence of Vaishnaw that the accident could have been averted had the train been fitted with an anti-collision device. This prompted the Centre to put out briefs on the latest iteration of such a technology, Kavach, and its deployment plans. The anti-collision system, Kavach, is still under development.

The Railways has announced a high-level probe apart from the statutory investigation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety. Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the “root-cause” of the incident has been identified, and said that it is issue of point machine and electronic interlocking.

The change that was done to electronic interlocking which led to the accident has been identified, Vaishnaw said while denying that the incident had anything to do with the anti-collision system “Kavach”.

— With agency inputs