Cong. demands PM’s apology in Independence Day speech

The Congress on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the country in his Independence Day address for the death of over 60 children at a State-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, from where sitting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been elected five times. The party also sought the resignations of the CM and the State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh for trying to “save” the guilty in the tragic deaths of these children. Attacking Mr. Modi for remaining silent on the deaths of these children, reportedly because of a shortage in the supply of liquid oxygen, Congress senior spokesperson Ajay Maken said, “The PM uses Twitter to say something about tragedies even in Turkey or USA, but he has not found any words to console the families of the dead children….We hope he apologises to the country.” He also took Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah to task for dismissing the deaths of the children as a minor incident: “How can we expect the government to be sympathetic when the president of the ruling party makes such unfeeling remarks?” Mr. Maken recalled that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had warned last year that the funds of the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur had been “stopped” in September 2016, and had also visited its encephalitis wing. “People are now complaining that funds that were being sanctioned for encephalitis control have been stopped,” he said. Since August 7, over 60 children have died at the state-run BRD Medical College, where oxygen supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor. Mr. Maken said that the oxygen cylinder vendor had written twice to the UP chief minister in recent months, reminding him that the bills were unpaid. Yet no step was taken to ensure continuous supply of oxygen.