Odisha train tragedy: Owning moral responsibility, only two ministers had resigned

Calls for resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw have been made by Opposition parties owning moral responsibility. Past incidents show only two - Lal Bahadur Shastri and Nitish Kumar - have resigned.

Lal Bahadur Shastri

He resigned twice after accidents in 1956. When he quit in August 1956 after the Mehboob Nagar accident which claimed 112 lives, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to accept it. Three months later in November when another accident in Ariyalur in which 144 lives were claimed, Shastri insisted that he be allowed to "quietly" go. "It will be good if I quietly quit the office I hold," he wrote in his resignation. Reluctantly, Nehru agreed.

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Nitish Kumar

He resigned in 1999 after 290 people lost their lives in the Gaisal (West Bengal) accident. However, he was back as Railway Minister two years later.

Mamata Banerjee

She offered to quit in 2000 after a train accident in Punjab in which 43 people were killed. Prime Minister AB Vajpayee refused to accept her resignation. She was back as Railway Minister in the UPA government later but quit to become West Bengal Chief Minister.

Suresh Prabhu

After a series of accidents, he offered to quit but it was rejected. One of the accidents killed 150 people when Patna Indore Express derailed near Kanpur. However, he was shifted to Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

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Ramvilas Paswan

He did not offer to resign and asked in 1997 after the Himasagar and Karnataka Express collided, "if a driver crashes into another train, it's hardly the railway minister's fault. Do chief ministers resign after car accidents?"