New Delhi: In a classic case of smear campaign against the Indian Railways, a video of train caught in fire and Army jawans rushing to salvage the passengers was projected as incident of ‘starting the train by manual push’ on social media.
A video circulated on Monday, showing hordes of Army jawans, police team, railway personnel & also commuters assembling at the tracks and pushing a train to ‘start’ it. Owing to such rare phenomenon, the video footage was lapped up by Opposition leaders, who mocked the Indian Railways for its ‘tragic failure’. They claimed that the train stopped all of a sudden & Army jawans were called in for ‘re-starting’ the engine & sending passengers to their destination.
Jawans & passengers were trying to push a train as it stopped abruptly.
In 70 years, have you ever seen such a government? pic.twitter.com/E0eknysZaf
— Брат (@B5001001101) July 10, 2023
The same incident also caught the attention of a couple of media outlets, who in a rush reported it on similar lines. However, the truth has come out now.
The claim that train came to a halt suddenly turned out to be completely false. The train did stop but the reason was a raging fire that engulfed one coach of train and threatened to spread further.
75 सालों में पहली बार….
New India में Train Start करने की Ninja Technique… Thank You Modi ji. pic.twitter.com/m7moTWdhpi
— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) July 10, 2023
However, a narrative was weaved around the whole incident. In reality, the incident is not about shocking failure of Railways but the bogeresilience of human effort in fighting off a challenge.
Fire on Falaknuma Express
The incident happened on Howrah-Secunderabad route, where five coaches of Falaknuma Express caught fire.
When the viral video came to Railway’s notice, its spokesperson came forward to reveal the truth.
Railway Ministry spokesperson tweeted the fact and debunked the false claims being attributed to viral video.
He said that the incident was related to Train No 12703 (HWH-SC) fire incident to July 7 and the same was being circulated in a sensational & irresponsible manner.
This relates to Train No 12703 (HWH-SC) fire incident on 7th July, 2023.
News of a fire incident is being used in a sensational & irresponsible manner. Here are the facts: https://t.co/wAlX2ih9Ov
— Spokesperson Railways (@SpokespersonIR) July 10, 2023
“After the fire incident, promt response was given & an engine was on its way to help to detach the coaches to stop further spread of fire, but instead of just waiting for the engine to come, our alert Railway & Local police personnel took immediate action,” Official spokesperson of the Ministry of Railways added.
“Railway personnel and Local police joined hands to detach the rear coaches & avoid further spread of fire,” he informed further.
एक वायरल वीडियो में दावा किया जा रहा है कि सेना और पुलिस के जवानों ने ट्रेन नंबर 12703 फलकनुमा एक्सप्रेस को धक्का लगा कर स्टार्ट कर दिया।#PIBFactCheck:
▶️ यह दावा #भ्रामक है।
▶️ यह घटना ट्रेन में आग लगने की है, जिसे गलत तरीके से प्रसारित किया जा रहा है।
1/2 pic.twitter.com/JsalP6FO1v
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) July 10, 2023
Newspaper report exposes canard
A leading newspaper also reported about the July 7 incident. It reported on how the cops assembled to push some coaches of Faluknama rain to safety, as the train had caught fire. The fire broke out between Bommaipally and Pagidipally in Telangana and could have caused harm to passengers of other coaches.
