BSP chief Mayawati had earlier in the day also asked Priyanka Gandhi similar questions and said if Gandhi does not go and meet the children’s mothers, then her meeting with the families of anti-CAA protestors in UP will be seen as “pure theatrics”.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who has repeatedly hammered the Uttar Pradesh government for “insensitive” handling of rape victims and anti-Citizenship Act protestors, found herself in the firing line on Thursday with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP chief Mayawati asking her to show similar compassion to the victims of infant deaths at a government hospital in Congress-ruled Rajasthan.
Priyanka Gandhi was accused by both of “playing politics” in UP over anti-CAA protests, instead of consoling the mothers of about 100 children who died at Kota’s JK Lon hospital in the month of December allegedly due to poor medical care at the government-run facility.
The UP chief minister said it was extremely sad that despite being women both Priyanka and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi could not feel the pain of the mothers.
“The death of 100 innocent children is extremely saddening and heart-wrenching. The death of children is a blot on civilised society, human values and feelings. It is extremely sad that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, despite being women, are not able to understand the sorrow of the mothers,” Adityanath said.
He went on to say it would have been better “had Priyanka met and consoled the aggrieved mothers instead of indulging in politics in UP”.
Yogi Adityanath also accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of “indifference, insensitivity and irresponsible behavior” while questioning his alleged silence on the infant deaths.
BSP chief Mayawati had earlier in the day also asked Priyanka Gandhi similar questions and said if Gandhi does not go and meet the children’s mothers, then her meeting with the families of anti-CAA protestors in UP will be seen as “pure theatrics”.
Mayawati called Gehlot and his government “insensitive, disinterested and irresponsible” but reserved her sharpest criticism for Priyanka Gandhi.
“What is more saddening is the fact that the top leadership of the Congress, especially its general secretary, is maintaining silence over this issue. It would have been better if, like she did in UP, she had met the aggrieved mothers, who lost their children due to the laxity of the party’s government,” Mayawati said.
On a day when Priyanka was accused of selective empathy, she continued her focus on BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh with a tweet targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“On 359 out of 365 days in the year 2019, Section 144 was imposed in Varanasi town, the P.M’s own constituency, and he has the gall to say that people have nothing to fear?” Priyanka tweeted on Thursday.
Congress spokesman Virendra Madan, however, addressed the Rajasthan question and said no parallel could be drawn between the goings-on in UP and the deaths of infants in the Congress-ruled state.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also appealed that the infant deaths are not “politicized” and said his government was ready to improve the health infrastructure in the state with the Centre’s help, if required.
“The government is sensitive to the death of sick infants in JK Lon Hospital in Kota. There should no politics over the issue. Infant mortality at this hospital is steadily decreasing. We will try to reduce it further. It is our top priority that mothers and children remain in good health,” Gehlot tweeted in Hindi.
A Rajasthan government panel had cleared the government hospital doctors of any negligence a few days ago while adding that the hospital was short of beds and that its operation needed improvement.
Prasanta Patnaik