Vaishnaw should resign,says Congress

Press Trust of India 

New Delhi 

The Congress on Sunday demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over the Odisha rail tragedy, alleging that his “PR gimmicks” overshadowed the “serious deficiencies, criminal negligence and complete disregard for safety and security” of Indian Railways.

The Opposition party also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should accept part of the responsibility of the “mess” which his government has inflicted on the Indian Railways and the people.

Addressing a press conference, Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil and AICC’s publicity and media department head Pawan Khera alleged that the Odisha rail tragedy was a “man-made devastation caused by “utter negligence, serious lapses in the system, incompetence, and a narcissistic sense of know-it-all attitude of the Modi government”.

Prime Minister Modi, who has announced that the guilty would be punished, must first start with his Railway Minister, Khera said.

“Unequivocally and unambiguously we demand the resignation of the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Nothing short of it,” he said.

Earlier, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that railway safety had been compromised in the “PR campaign” of the prime minister and the railway minister.

“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,”Khera tweeted.