Over 60 people were killed and many others were injured when the Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU ran over people gathered to watch Ravan Dahan near the Jora Phatak area in Amritsar. It was a tragedy of mammoth proportions which was completely unavoidable if the organisers had paid attention. If would have also been avoidable had Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife had paid attention when the person standing next to her boasted that even if several trains pass, people will still wait on the tracks to greet her.
After a tragedy of such mammoth proportions, journalists were seen lying blatantly and politicking over the tragedy, and now, it seems to insensitivity is just beginning.
AAP MLA Sukhpal Singh Khera has now released a statement asserting that such minor incidents happen every day in the country.
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He said that this news of the Amritsar tragedy has created a ‘focus of attention’ on the incident. He said people from all over the country and the media have reached the spot trying to help. However, “these small incidents happen every day”. He said in road accidents in Punjab alone 8-10 people die every day. He then details how accidents are commonplace.
While the AAP MLA is correct in saying that many lives are lost in road accidents every day, to trivialise a mammoth, avoidable tragedy that claimed the lives of over 60 people is insensitive. The Amritsar train tragedy was a direct consequence of the nonchalance of the organisers and a crime of this proportions cannot be trivialised and compared to accidents.