Vaishnaw 'show' gets ‘derailed’… again!

New Delhi, NT Bureau: There were murmurs of discontent in the corridors of power when the suave Ashwini Vaishnaw was again given the railways portfolio in the Modi 3.0 cabinet and also other pivotal subjects like Information and Broadcasting and Information Technology (IT).

Was the Modi government so short of talent to give three portfolios to one minister who incidentally, was at the centre of a huge controversy after the horrendous

Balasore train tragedy in June last year which killed almost 300 people? Vaishnaw is back in the news for the wrong reasons after the Kanchanjunga Express tragedy left 15 people dead and more than 40 injured.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the government for "utter mismanagement" of the Railway Ministry.

"As a responsible Opposition, it is our duty to underline how the Modi government has converted the Rail Ministry into a platform of 'Cameradriven' self-promotion," Kharge remarked taking potshots at Vaishnav’s style of functioning.

Gandhi alleged the increase in accidents in 10 years is a "direct result of the mismanagement of the Modi government.’’

There have been illustrious railways ministers in the past - Lal Bahadur Shastri was one of them and exited his post in 1956 after a railway accident left 140 people dead. So did Nitish Kumar after a rail crash in 1999. But do such instances really matter to a government led by the BJP, which is hell-bent on holding on to power … and all primee portfolios at any cost?