New Delhi Railway Station stampede: Congress demands resignation of railway minister

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

The Congress on Sunday demanded that Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw must resign, taking moral responsibility for the stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station in which 18 people died.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said if Vaishnaw does not resign, he should be sacked for the "mismanagement" at the railway station.

She said railway officials were well aware of how many people were entering the station and as many as 1500 tickets were being sold every hour.

Proper arrangements for crowd management should have been made. Unfortunately, no security forces were seen and the crowds had to manage themselves, which led to such a tragedy, she said.

She alleged there are two Hindustans in the country, where on one side the king helps make his friends take a bath at the Kumbh while common people are dying at the railway platform. She also pointed out the VIP culture prevalent at the Kumbh.

"We have only one and only demand from this platform. Keeping in view yesterday's incident which was a massacre, the Railway minister has no right to be in his position even for a minute.

"The Railway minister must resign with immediate effect, taking moral responsibility for the incident. Else, he should be sacked in case he does not tender his resignation for the tragedy," she told reporters.

The Railway minister has totally "failed" in his responsibility and was only making reels and was trying to hide the deaths, she allegd.

"Ashwini Vaishnaw does not have the moral responsibility to be in his chair for even a minute. He is hanging on to his chair shamelessly," she claimed.

"The Indian Railways and Indians cannot be left in the hands of such a minister. The Railway minister cannot be a person who is busy building his image and terming the death of people as small incidents and one who instead of offering condolences to the people, tries to hide the deaths of people," the Congress leader said.

"What happened at New Delhi Railway Station last night is not an accident but a 'massacre'. Seeing the scene there, my heart was shaken," she said, adding many devotees full of faith and belief came to visit Kumbh, but no arrangements were made.

Shrinate said hearing the eyewitness accounts of the incident sent a chill down her spine and mentioned the porters carried the bodies of the stampede victims.

There was no arrangement for police administration or ambulances and there was a pile of corpses in the hospital, she said, asking "Who is responsible for this massacre of devotees"