Making light of the doctor’s agitation that had crippled health services across state Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav said that the strike was media creation and no one has died of it till now.
"Doctors agitation is only in the media. Has anyone of your family died of this agitation," Yadav Sr. asked a journalist who sought his reaction on doctors’ strike.
Mulayam Singh was asked this question at Raj Bhawan where he had gone to attend swearing in ceremony of Governor B l Joshi. Yadav said: "Doctors agitation is only in the media."
later when the scribes asked him how many deaths were reported during the 5-day long strike, the SP president asked the media persons whether anyone of his family died during the strike. "Media is making a hue and cry over the strike but there is nothing on the ground."
BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak has criticised the statement of the SP president saying this shows the in-sensitiveness face of the ruling party. "Everyone knows that several people have died during the doctors strike but the government is blaming media for the strike," he said.
"SP should first punish the party MlA Irfan Solanki whose behaviour sparked this strike in which several people died for not receiving the treatment at the right time," he said.
UP Congress spokesperson Amarnath Agarwal too condemned the SP supremo for his controversial remarks. "SP has always taken anti-people stand and now it is justifying the wrong act of its MlA," he said.