CONG: PRABHU SHOULD RESIGN TAKING MORAL RESPONSIBILITY

The Congress demanded Railways minister Suresh Prabhu’s resignation on Monday in the wake of ‘frequent’ train accidents during his tenure.

“We would like Suresh Prabhu to reflect and introspect. Does he have the moral right to continue in office? Should he remain the Railways minister of India?” asked Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.

Citing the example of Congress leaders Lal Bahadur Shastri and Madhavrao Scindia, Tewari said his party’s ministers had in the past taken moral responsibility for a tragedy that occurred during their tenure.

“There is something called the modicum of moral responsibility and politicians need to take moral responsibility,” he said.

Tewari recalled that Shastri had stepped down as the Railways minister when a similar train accident had happened nearly four decades ago. He added that when an Indian Airlines TU-154 aircraft crash landed at Delhi airport in January 1993, Scindia stepped down as the civil aviation minister.

“When he (Suresh Prabhu) was brought in (as the minister), he was touted as the ‘messiah’ who would transform the Railways completely. But what has happened is that even day-to-day functioning of railways has suffered, which is reflected in repeated accidents,” he said.

The main opposition party claimed that the Utkal Express derailment was the 27th rail mishap to have occurred since the current Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power at the Centre in 2014, which ‘underscored’ the government’s insensitivity towards train safety and security. HTC