On Sunday, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he mocked central government's 'Make in India' campaign over the breakdown of Vande Bharat Express. Gandhi not only attacked the Make in India campaign but also mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Vande Bharat Express, codenamed Train 18, broke down on its maiden return journey on Saturday.
Gandhi said "Modi ji, I think Make in India needs a serious rethink. Most people feel it has failed. I assure you we in the Congress are thinking very deeply about how it will be done,". Retaliating strongly to Gandhi's jibe, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said it is a shame that Gandhi chose to attack the "hard work and ingenuity" of Indian engineers, technicians, and labourers.
Goyal asked "It is THIS mindset which needs a reset. 'Make In India' is a success and a part of crores of Indian lives. Your family had 6 decades to think, wasn't that enough?". Reacting to Goyal's comment, senior Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam asked the railway minister to not react in frustration. "You should apologise to the nation for the failure of a train which you tried to showcase as semi high-speed train with forged video. Don't bring our engineers in between. You as Minister always take credit, be ready to be blamed," he said.
Meanwhile, BJP called the Congress president a "consistent failure" on its official Twitter handle. BJP questioned in its tweet "Just because of one minor glitch you are asking for rethink on an initiative as critical as 'Make in India'. Do you realise how deeply India is rethinking about a consistent failure like you? P.S: Does your deep thinking involve outsourcing our manufacturing to Italy?".On Saturday, the Vande Bharat Express broke down while returning from Varanasi to Delhi after the train ran over cattle. It was halted at around 5:30 am at Bahrain but operations were resumed at around 8:15 am.
However, the Railway ministry soon clarified that the Vande Bharat Express is fit to resume commercial operations from Sunday (February 17). "The train has been examined at the New Delhi maintenance depot to rectify the defect in communication. All other systems have also been rectified. The train will now be able to run as per schedule on February 17," it added. Just an hour ago, Piyush Goyal shared a video on his Twitter handle, asking people to grab their tickets as Vande Bharat Express left for its first commercial run.
