Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of the death of a student in Patliputra railway station in Bihar has been rebutted by the Ministry of Railways, which has expressed its “disagreement” with the Congress.
This follows Rahul Gandhi’s tweet that appeared on social media claiming that a student aspirant had died in a train while travelling from one city to another. The video was recorded and got a lot of critical comments about the circumstances for students travelling to examination online.
The Railways in response initiated enquiry on the issue, reviewed station record and available information pertaining to the incident. The ministry’s investigation revealed there was no evidence that the person died while on board a train at Patliputra station.
The video of the person seems to show that they were experiencing fatigue or medical condition, not a deadly incident, officials said. The ministry reiterated that it took care of checking all concerned documents prior to issuing the clarification.
It was on this video that Rahul Gandhi had raised questions about the government, saying students still experience problems in preparing for competitive exams and travelling to them. The issue he linked to was the more general issue of the welfare of the students, recruitment exams and education problems.
The issues that sparked the controversy came in the wake of Gandhi’s “Chhatron Ki Goonj” rally in Kota, to which he emphasized addressing issues like paper leakage in exams and recruitment processes, increased education expenses, and alleged corruption in the system, among other things. The Railways has flatly refuted the death report while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bailout of the suspended trains has sparked political discussion on the concerns of students and the veracity of the information spread on social media.
Police did warn the public to stick to published information and official statements of incidents like this.