Rahul meets Gorakhpur victims, Yogi says it’s no place for ‘picnic’

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 19

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday met some bereaved families of children who died at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur last week and expressed his sympathies.

Accompanied by party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and UP Congress Committee president Raj Babbar among others, Rahul heard out the bereaved families and assured them of full support.

Calling it a “government-made tragedy”, Rahul asked PM Narendra Modi if this was the New India he spoke about. “We do not want a New India where children die without oxygen. We want a New India where children can return to their homes from hospitals after getting fully recovered,” he said.

Urging the government to take strict action against the guilty instead of “covering up” the incident, he said: “All the families I met said their children died after the oxygen supply stopped. They said the hospital staff gave them ambu bags but that could not save their children.”

Rahul cancelled his visit to the BRD hospital at the last minute. “The people of Gorakhpur told Rahulji that the visit of politicians causes a lot of inconvenience to the patients. This is why he cancelled his visit to the medical college,” said a tweet of former Congress MLA Akhilesh Pratap Singh.

It was a day of charges and counter-charges that raised the political temperature in Gorakhpur as CM Yogi Adityanath attacked Rahul and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for turning Gorakhpur into a “picnic spot”.

During a function organised to inaugurate the “Swachh UP, Swasth UP (Clean UP, Healthy UP) campaign at Andhyari Bagh in Gorakhpur, he said: “Lucknow mein baitha shehzada aur Delhi mein baitha yuvraj is swachh abhiyaan ke mahatwa ko nahi jaan payega. Gorakhpur unke liye picnic spot baney iski ijazat hame nahi deni chahiye (The princes sitting in Lucknow and Delhi do not understand the importance of the cleanliness drive. We should not allow them to make Gorakhpur a picnic spot).”

To this, Babbar said the CM’s “ghatiya baatein” brought down the prestige of the office that he was occupying. “It shows that he is nervous with Rahul’s visit as he knows that he will get justice for the victims,” he said.

Azad accused the UP CM of not doing anything for the hospital in spite of being five-time MP from Gorakhpur. This is Azad’s second visit to the district since the death of 30 children in 36 hours on August 10-11.

Akhilesh took to Twitter to react. “Khokhley wadon aur halki bayanbaazi se kab tak janta ko bahlayenge, aisey banega ‘Swachch UP-Swasth UP? (Till when will you cajole people with false promises and lightweight rhetoric. Is this how “Clean UP-Healthy UP will be achieved?),” he tweeted.

‘Shehzada & yuvraj’

Lucknow mein baitha shehzada (Akhilesh Yadav) aur Delhi mein baitha yuvraj (Rahul Gandhi) is swachh abhiyaan ke mahatwa ko nahi jaan payega. Gorakhpur unke liye picnic spot baney iski ijazat hame nahi deni chahiye. — Yogi Adityanath, UP CM

‘Clean-healthy UP’

Khokhley wadon aur halki bayanbaazi se kab tak janta ko bahlayenge. Aisey banega 'Swachh UP-Swasth UP? — Akhilesh Yadav, SP chief

‘A new India’

We do not want a new India where children die without oxygen. We want a new India where children can return to their homes from hospitals after getting fully recovered — Rahul Gandhi, Cong vice-president