On Tuesday, June 6, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) fact-checked Congress claims that people have cancelled tickets in large numbers after the Balasore Train Accident in Odisha. In a statement quoting Congress, IRCTC said the information being spread by Congress was factually incorrect.
While Congress claimed thousands of people cancelled their tickets, IRCTC said the cancellation has, in fact, reduced from 7.7 lakhs on June 1 to 7.5 lakhs on June 3. The unfortunate accident took place on June 2.
This is factually incorrect. Cancellations have not increased. On the contrary, cancellations have reduced from 7.7 Lakh on 01.06.23 to 7.5 Lakh on 03.06.23. https://t.co/tn85n03WPn
— IRCTC (@IRCTCofficial) June 6, 2023
Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das claimed people are canceling their Railway tickets
In a video statement, former Union Minister for Railways Bhakta Charandas, who is currently in charge of Bihar, Manipur & Mizoram Congress, said, “Such a train accident never happened in the past. Many people have died. According to the government, the official number of dead people is 275, but hundreds of people are still missing. People are searching for their relatives but are unable to find them. Where are their dead bodies? Are they at some morgue or buried under the ground [at the accident site]? The government is not answering.”
He then insinuated that thousands of people had cancelled tickets in view of the accident. He said, “Over 1,000 people seriously got injured. It has hurt everyone. Every Chief Minister has expressed concern. Thousands of people have cancelled tickets after this accident, saying the train journey is unsafe.” The statement was made without any data or evidence of such a thing happening in the backdrop of the tragic accident. Refuting the claims, IRCTC said the number of cancellations reduced after the accident.
He further questioned why there was no debate in the parliament house over the accident. The Parliament is currently not in session and will meet again in the Monsoon Session, which generally takes place in August.
Since the accident, the Congress party has been at the forefront of targeting the government and playing politics over the dead bodies. Recently, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a statement in New York that Congress Railway Ministers resigned from their post on moral grounds after a train accident and demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
However, when OpIndia searched the history of Ministers under the Congress regime who resigned after accidents, we found that only then-Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned after an accident. Apart from him, all Railway Ministers who resigned were from the NDA era, either then-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee or in current times during PM Narendra Modi-led government at the centre.
