New Delhi: Union Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has been facing flak for the last few days following a series of accidents and derailments on the tracks.
From trolling in social media to facing the Opposition’s wrath in Parliament, Vaishnaw took it on the chin before deciding to give it back to his detractors who demanded his resignation.
Livid at being called ‘Reel Minister’, the generally calm and composed Vaishnaw on Thursday lost his cool and strongly rebutted the Opposition’s criticisms regarding recent train derailments.
A visibly charged-up Vaishnaw said in the Lok Sabha that safety measures had been neglected during the Congress regime and the Opposition always wanted to politicise the issue.
“Those who are shouting here must be asked why they were not able to install Automatic Train Protection (ATP) even for 1 km during their 58 years in power. Today, they dare to raise questions,” Vaishnaw said.
As the Railways minister spoke, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party MP Hanuman Beniwal said, “You are a reel minister, you are a derail minister.” Vaishnaw turned around and told Beniwal angrily, “You shut up and sit down.”
Referring to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s visit to loco pilots in Delhi last month, Vaishnaw alleged that those who are “busy making reels with locomotive drivers did nothing during their tenure.”
Mocked for being conscious of maintaining his image on social media image rather than on-ground work to improve railway infrastructure, Vaishnaw claimed that during the Congress-led United UPA regime, annual average number of accidents in the country was 171, which has gone down by 68 per cent during 10 years of the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“When Mamata Banerjee was the Railways Minister, she used to report the accident numbers decreasing from 0.24 to 0.19. People used to clap in the House, and today, when it has decreased from 0.19 to 0.03, they put such blame. How will the country run in this way?” the minister asked.
“Congress, with the help of its troll army on social media, raises false claims. Are they trying to instil fear in the hearts of the 2 crore people who travel by railways every day?” Vaishnaw said in an uncharacteristically aggressive tone.
In the latest mishap, two persons were killed and 22 injured after 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed in Jharkhand.
Congress alleged that in June and July alone, the ‘Fail Minister’ has “overseen three accidents” that have cumulatively cost 17 lives, but there is “no accountability” in Modi’s new India.