Rahul Gandhi’s tweet on ‘railway privatisation’ is false: PIB

The Press Information Bureau stated on Sunday that any claims about the privatisation of the railway are wholly untrue. Rahul Gandhi stated in a tweet from yesterday that 151 Indian Railways trains had been privatised, according to a screenshot shared by the PIB Fact Check on Twitter.

“This is false and absolutely baseless. The Railways has not privatised any of its property,” it said.

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday shared a video from his ongoing in a tweet and wrote: “Railways connect India — providing services to 2.5 crore passengers daily and employment to 12 lakh people. Pradhanmantri ji, railway is the property of the country. Do not privatise it. Strengthen it. Don’t sell it.”

In the accompanying video, Rahul Gandhi can be seen in Telangana– on his Bharat Jodo Yatra interacting with people. Some of them were members of railways union who came to meet Rahul Gandhi to submit a memorandum against ‘railway provatisation’.

“Which part of Indian Railways are they privatising?” Rahul Gandhi asked as he was walking. ‘Railway stations, railway workshops, railway medical hospitals and railway establishments are going to be privatised,” Bharani Bhanu Prasad, a member of South Central Railway Employees’ Sangh told.

“When are they planning to do this? Are they already doing this slowly?” Rahul Gandhi asked. The members said, “Yes Sir.”

“Who are they giving it to? Big companies or small companies?” Rahul Gandhi asked. “Big companies, sir,” the employees said together as seen in the video. “Private trains are already being used in India,” they said.

“151 trains have been privatised,” one of the employees said.

After that, a 2019 newspaper headline was displayed in the video.

The railway union members said in the video that they saw Rahul Gandhi and conveyed the “privatisation” of the railways to him. “We have never seen or heard of privatisation in the 170-year history of the Indian Railways. Our opposition to privatisation “One of the participants commented.