By India Today News Desk: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in the United States, hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Odisha triple-train accident which claimed at least 275 lives since Friday evening. Addressing the Indian diaspora in New York on Sunday, the Gandhi scion said the BJP always looks back and passes the blame.
“You ask them (BJP) anything, they will look back and pass the blame. Ask them why the train accident (in Odisha) took place, and they (BJP) will say Congress did this 50 years ago,” he said.
“Their immediate response is peeche dekho (look in history),” Rahul Gandhi said. He further drew parallels between the BJP and RSS, saying their approach was retrospective and they were merely seeking to blame the past.
Rahul Gandhi also mentioned a train tragedy under the Congress government and, in the wake of the railway accident, the then railway minister had stepped down from office as a moral responsibility. Hinting at his recent demand for Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s resignation after the horrific train accident in Odisha, Rahul Gandhi said that his party did not shy away from taking the responsibility.
“I remember a train accident when the Congress was in power. The Congress did not get up and say ‘now it is the fault of the British that the train has crashed’. The Congress minister said ‘it’s my responsibility and I’m resigning’. So this is the problem we have back home, we make excuses and we are not accepting the reality we are faced with,” Gandhi said, without naming the Congress minister.
The train collision involving Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train is regarded as one of the worst railway tragedies in the history of the country. The triple train collision has claimed at least 275 lives and left more than 1,100 injured.
‘PM MODI DRIVING CAR LOOKING INTO REAR-VIEW MIRROR’
Continuing his tirade against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former Congress MP said the “prime minister is trying to drive the Indian car and he only looks at the rear-view mirror”.
“He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is trying to drive the car…the Indian car and he looks in the rear-view mirror. Then he does not understand why this car is crashing, not moving forward. And it’s the same idea with the BJP, with the RSS. All of them. You listen to the ministers, you listen to the prime minister. You will never find them talking about the future. They only talk about the past,” he said, adding that the BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking into the future.
“They never talk about the future; they only talk about the past. And they will always blame somebody else for the past,” he said.
Speaking about the relevance of non-resident Indians in the country’s politics, the senior Congress leader said, “The central architect of modern India was an NRI, Mahatma Gandhi was an NRI…The freedom movement of India began in South Africa…Nehru, BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Subhas Chandra Bose, all were NRIs and had an open mind to the outside world. They all came home with different ideas.”
“That’s what I expect from you (the Indian community),” Gandhi said.
“Had he been a Congress minister, he would have said it is my responsibility and I would have given the resignation. But BJP always gives excuses,” he further said.
The now-expelled Lok Sabha MP’s attack at the Centre came during his ongoing visit to the US. He made headlines recently over his remarks about the prime minister preaching God.
He had said, “I think if you sat Modi Ji down next to God, he would start explaining to God how the universe works. And God would get confused about what I have created.”
(With PTI inputs)
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