‘When you can't provide rail security, how can you run a State?'

Outraged at State-level sportswoman Sonu alias Arunima Sinha being pushed out of a running train, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, in an obvious reference to Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Thursday wondered how someone “who cannot provide the minimum security to passengers on trains claim to be able to run a State government.”

Ms. Karat, who addressed an election meeting of tea garden workers at Nagrakata in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, expressed her “horror” at Tuesday's incident.

What she found particularly deplorable was “that a politician who has been given the responsibility of running such an important Ministry is unable to ensure the security of women passengers.”

Ms. Sinha, in her early 20s, was pushed out of the train near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh by men who allegedly tried to rob her. She lost one of her legs and suffered multiple fractures in the other.

Speaking to The Hindu over telephone from north Bengal, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member said: “Such incidents have also happened elsewhere in the country. We have been raising the matter in Parliament.”

“Giving priority to the safety of passengers is just not there. Nor is there any accountability,” she said. It just could not be that passengers were told that the Minister, who should be responsible for their security, “is presently preoccupied with other things like an election campaign.”

Ms. Karat pointed out that there were “nearly 13,000 vacancies in the Railway Protection Force which is sadly why the security of passengers cannot be guaranteed.”