‘Modi should quit on moral grounds’

Nagpur: MPCC chief Nana Patole on Sunday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by taking moral responsibility for the triple-train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district that left 288 dead and more than 1,000 people injured.
Speaking to the media at his home here, Patole said no concrete reason is being given behind such an accident, “which could be perhaps rated as the biggest in the world in the recent past”.
The Sakoli MLA said that since the people pay for the railway tickets, it is the government’s responsibility to look after their safety and security. “But the PM is busy ensuring benefits to his friends. Inquiry should be done which industrial house was operating the goods train involved in the accident. Nowadays, goods trains are provided a safe passage and passenger trains are halted for them. Need to find out who operates these trains,” he said.
Clarifying that Congress did not want to do politics on this tragedy, Patole said former railway minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had resigned after a similar accident during the era of then PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
“For the first time in any democracy, all decisions are being taken from the Prime Minister’s Office. People know only about PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah. They hardly know names of other ministers in the cabinet. They at least know who Shastri was. If Modi takes credit for all the good works, he should also take responsibility for such failures.”
The MPCC chief said lives were lost due to wrong policies of the BJP government. “This is ‘Besharam sarkar’ which did not care for the people and indulged in its own propaganda. Therefore, we dare those talking about a 56 inch chest to put in papers on the Odisha tragedy,” Patole said.