Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attacked the prime minister’s `New India’ campaign and said that people of the country not wanted a New India where children die due to lack non availability of oxygen.
lambasting the slogan of New India in making by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said, “we don’t want such New India where children die due to shortage of oxygen.” In a brief interaction with the media after Gandhi met couple of families whose children died in the tragedy, he said, “it is unfortunate that governments had tried it’s best to cover up it’s lapses but it failed to do so.”
“It is a government made tragedy and even the family members I met today had said that their children died due to lack of oxygen,” he added. The government at the Centre as well as in UP are talking about New India in the making but this is what new India means, he questioned. “The government hospitals in the country are in bad shape and till they are improved nothing can be expected,” he added.
Congress vice-president also targeted chief minister Yogi Adityanath alleging that the state government instead of showing sympathy towards the bereaved families or taking stern action against the persons responsible for the death, had pushed it’s entire energy to cover up the Gorakhpur incident even when several children died at the BRD Medical college hospital due to lack of oxygen.
Accompanied by leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and AICC general secretary( in-charge of Uttar Pradesh) Gulam Nabi Azad and State president Raj Babbar, Rahul reached Gorakhpur on Saturday morning for a day long visit. Without talking to media, he straight away visited the family members of the deceased children in the nearby areas.
Gandhi first went to the residence of Brahmadeo Yadav of Baghagarha village, then he visited Malawa village to meet the family of Nitesh Shukla, then he went to Basauli village in Bansgaon to meet Ramashanker and then went to Khutna village in Khajni area to meet the families of Jitendra. During his visit to the first family of the deceased children, Rahul Gandhi turned emotional after meeting the family members of Brahmadeo Yadav, whose twin children of 15 days died in the BRD hospital between August 9 and 10. Gandhi, expressing his condolence in presence of other party leaders, assured all help to the family including financial assistance.
The Congress vice- president was also accompanied by former Union minister R P Singh, state legislature party leader Ajay Kumar lalu. The Congress vice- president went to the residence of families, whose children have died on August 10, reportedly due to shortage of oxygen supply in the hospital. However UP government had vehemently denied such shortage so far. But on the last moment, Gandhi postponed his visit to the BRD Medical College Hospital reportedly to ensure that the doctors faced no hurdle in attending the patients. Rahul also reportedly refused to take local security cover of the police citing that the district was facing flood, so the cops should contribute in forwarding relief to the victims instead of ensuring his safety.
Gulam Nabi Azad in a brief interaction with the media directly blamed chief minister Yogi Adityanath for the mismanagement of the BRD medical college hospital. “In spite of being 5-time MP from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath did nothing for the hospital,” he commented while reiterated that the State government had conspired to cover up the criminal act of the death of the children due to oxygen supply failure. However, reacting to the statement of Yogi Adityanath terming the visit of Rahul Gandhi as a picnic, state Congress president Raj Babbar said,” Yogi has insulted the CM post and his statement shows that he has no sympathy for the poor.” “Yogi has shown his low mentality by giving such statement and it also proves that the BJP are worried about the peoples’ support for Congress on the Gorakhpur issue,” he said while claiming that Rahul Gandhi is in Gorakhpur to know the problem of the people and everyone knows about his concern for the poor and downtrodden.
Earlier, CM Yogi Adityanath, who was in Gorakhpur in the morning to launch the cleanness drive, had alleged that Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav are coming to Gorakhpur just for picnic.