Accusing the Narendra Modi government of dereliction of duty of Himalayan proportions in the Balasore train accident, the Congress on Wednesday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for negligence.
At a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said Mr. Vaishnaw was “doing theatrics” after the horrific accident and said “he should be given an Oscar award for it”.
Mr. Kumar said that the budget for laying of new tracks and repairing the old ones had come down from ₹9,607 crores in 2018-19 to ₹7,417 crores in 2019-2020. He added that in the past four years, there had been over 1,129 derailments yet there had been no accountability.
Referring to the Odisha accident, Mr. Kumar said, “It was sabotage done by the Rail Minister as part of a conspiracy with the Prime Minister for which an FIR should be registered against them.”
“The conspiracy that the CBI should investigate is against Ashwini Vaishnaw and his government,” he added.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote on Twitter: “The 288 families of the Odisha train tragedy will not get justice by hailing the Railway Minister. Justice will be served only when their accountability and responsibility is fixed.” “The facts show that in the last 9 years, the Modi government has given up on the Ministry of Railways. And now the country is suffering because of it,” he added.
