MUMBAI: Shiv Sena, on Monday, compared the last week's Amritsar train mishap with Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
"An incident that reminds of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in Punjab recently. Jallianwala Bagh incident took place during the British rule. However, the Amritsar tragedy has taken place in independent India. Even after getting freedom long ago, it has become people's destiny to die like insects," read an article in Saamna, the mouthpiece of Shiv Sena.
On October 19, a speeding train mowed down Dussehra revellers on a railway track at the Jhoda Phatak area of Amritsar, the same city in which the British Indian Army fired on an unarmed crowd, killing hundreds on 13 April 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh.
Poking holes in the railway infrastructure and functioning, the Sena criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central and the Congress-party led Punjab government. It also took a pot shot at the bullet train project.
"Hundreds of people die in train accidents. Every time such incidents happen, a Railways Minister quits and is replaced by another. It has become a tradition. Earlier, Suresh Prabhu went and Piyush Goyal was chosen as his replacement... Railways always had a separate budget, but the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government removed that too," Shiv Sena stated.