NEW DELHI: Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday hit back at the opposition for allegedly raising slogans against him over recent train accidents during his tenure, and recounted in Parliament the ‘poor’ track record of previous UPA regimes when it comes to railway safety.
As the minister was making his address, he was interrupted by loud sloganeering and chants of “reel minister” from the opposition benches, to which Vaishnaw sharply responded by saying, “Hum reel banane waale log naheen hain, hum mehnat karne waale log hain (We are not people who make reels; we are people who work hard). Those who are shouting here must be asked in their 58 years of being in power why they were not able to install Automatic Train Protection (ATP), even 1 km. Today, they dare to raise the questions.”
“When Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister, she used to give the accident numbers that decreased from 0.24 per cent to 0.19 per cent these people used to clap in the House and today when it has decreased from 0.19 per cent to 0.3 per cent, they put such blame. Will this country run in this way?” he asked.
The railway minister also accused the opposition of infusing fear in the hearts of those 2 crore people who travel every day by railways.
“The Congress, which is busy setting up a shop of lies, will not succeed with that shop. Sometimes they belittle the army, sometimes they belittle the railways; this kind of politics will not work,” he said.
“Congress with the help of its troll army of social media raises false things. Are they trying to infuse fear in the hearts of those 2 crore people who travel every day by railways?” he added.
Vaishnaw’s remarks came after the opposition consistently pressed for the government to hold him accountable for recent train accidents and to dismiss him from his position.
Over the past few months, Union minister Vaishnaw has faced significant online trolling in connection with railway accidents. Many memes have ridiculed him as the “Reel minister.”
