Vibha Sharma
New Delhi, October 31
The ruling BJP on Monday cancelled its political programmes, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s road show in poll-bound Gujarat, in the wake of the Morbi bridge tragedy. The PM will be visiting the tragedy-struck Morbi on Tuesday to take stock of the situation.
Reports that the “newly-renovated bridge was thrown open without a fitness certificates” led to the Opposition pointing fingers at the BJP government, accusing it of negligence. With elections to the Gujarat Assembly expected soon, PM Modi’s statement following the collapse of a flyover in Kolkata in 2016 too came to haunt the BJP.
The Congress demanded a judicial probe into the mishap considering the bridge was opened on October 26 (Gujarati New Year) after repairs. “This is no time for politics but is critical to fix responsibility in the matter,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
However, tweeting on the incident, several opposition leaders played on the phrase the Prime Minister used at a rally while lampooning the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal after the Vivekananda Road flyover collapsed in Kolkata to question if Morbi was an “act of God or an act of fraud”.
“Modi ji, is the Morbi bridge accident an Act of God or Act of Fraud,” Congress leader Digvijaya Singh questioned quoting his statement. Y Sathish Reddy of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Manoj Singh of the Samajwadi Party also referred to the time when PM Modi called the flyover collapse in Kolkata “act of fraud” and not “an act of God.”
Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala termed the incident a man-made tragedy and called the BJP government in Gujarat “guilty”.
“This is not a natural accident, it is a man-made tragedy. The BJP government of Gujarat is directly guilty of this heinous crime,” Surjewala said, also attacking PM Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel over the compensation announced for the deceased kin.
“PM and CM cannot evade their responsibility by announcing Rs 2 lakh compensation for the lives of Gujarati brothers and sisters,” he said.
Meanwhile, quoting some tweets of AAP leaders, BJP’s Kapil Mishra alleged “conspiracy”.
AAP leaders dismissed it as an attempt to “evade responsibility and digress attention from the terrible tragedy”. “Who is Kapil Mishra,” questioned AAP leader Naresh Balyan, claiming that Mishra, who was “kicked out by AAP,” was only trying to “remain politically relevant”.
“Many BJP leaders are joining AAP in Gujarat,” Balyan said, explaining the context behind his tweet.