That is one of the several morality traps in public life—when a minister is asked to quit owning moral responsibility for something that had happened under his charge, but not directly caused by his action or inaction. This is distinct from legal responsibility wherein the person is liable to be penalised for the event.
Though some 40 men and women have loco-piloted the rail ministry through more than 250 major and minor accidents, only three have followed the Shastri example—Nitish Kumar in 1999, Mamata Banerjee in 2000, and Suresh Prabhu in 2016.
Strangely, the moral pressure is more on rail ministers. Planes have crashed but hardly anyone has asked aviation ministers to quit, though Madhavrao Scindia set an example in 1993 after a wet-leased aircraft crashed in Delhi, killing none.
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