The BJP on Saturday blamed the Congress government in Punjab for the Dussehra train tragedy near Amritsar, saying the state administration’s failure had led to the deaths of dozens of revellers.

“It was quite shocking. There was an administrative failure on the part of the Punjab government. This is a case of Section 304A of the IPC (causing death by negligence). The BJP demands justice for all those who have demised or are injured,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.

Fifty-nine people died on Friday evening after a train bore down on a crowd of revellers who had spilled onto the tracks while watching a Ravan effigy being burnt.

Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s information technology cell, targeted “journalists” and Editor’s Guild president Shekhar Gupta for blaming the Narendra Modi government for the tragedy.

“As details of the horrific #AmritsarTrainAccident emerge, some journalists, who rushed to blame Modi govt, have ended up with egg on their face. But when President of Editor’s Guild is purveyor of fake news, what can one expect of others? Partisanship in the garb of journalism...” Malviya tweeted.

Gupta had in a tweet said: “After four+ years of Modi Govt tall talk on modernising the railways, such a shame we still have unmanned crossings….”

In a later tweet he said he had “responded to initial TV reports” and acknowledged that he “could have waited instead of reacting to shock”.

The BJP had initially been on the back foot, fearing that it was a lapse on the part of the railways. But it attacked the Congress-led state government after railway board chairman Ashwani Lohani came up with a statement that the railways had not been intimated about the Dussehra celebrations near the tracks.

“People should restrain from organising such events near the tracks in the future. Drivers are given specific instructions on where to slow down. There was a curve, the driver couldn’t have seen it. About what should we order an inquiry? Trains travel in speed only,” junior railway minister Manoj Sinha said.

The presence of Congress minister Navjot Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu’s presence at the event and the allegation that she drove away from the site after the accident has given the BJP a handle to target the Congress.

“The most condemnable and inhuman behaviour is of Mrs Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who was present at the Dussehra festivities as chief guest at the time when the sad incident took place and instead of providing relief to the victims, Mrs Sidhu ran away from the incident site,” the Punjab BJP said in a statement.

Navjot Kaur said that when she came to know about the incident, she had “arranged for doctors so the injured get treatment”.