India’s ruling BJP has sent a fact-finding team to probe a series of mysterious infant deaths at a hospital in the state of Rajasthan, where nearly 100 babies died this month alone and around 10 times more died in the last year.
The team of four BJP lawmakers will travel to the JK Lon Hospital in the city of Kota this week to investigate the spate of tragedies, according to local media reports, and is set to deliver its findings to the government sometime in the next three days.
The probe was launched on the heels of a new report by India’s National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), which recently visited the facility and found that it was in an appalling state of disrepair, with blown-out window panes, broken gates and pigs roaming on its campus. Severe staff shortages were observed as well.
The commission also found the mortalities had increased in recent days, with December’s death toll of 77 jumping to 91 near the end of the month. The 14 new deaths occurred between December 25 and 29, while 10 other children passed away in a span of just 48 hours several weeks prior. In total, over 940 youths and infants have died at the hospital in the last year from a variety of causes, including various forms of pneumonia and meningitis, among other ailments.
Following the report, NCPCR Chairman Priyank Kanoongo issued a notice to the Rajasthan government – controlled by the opposition Congress party – seeking action on the issue. The notice was underscored by two former BJP health ministers on Monday, Rajendra Singh Rathore and Kalicharan Saraf, who also visited the facility and demanded something be done.
Ashok Gehlot, chief minister for the state of Rajasthan, disputed the critical report, arguing it was “nothing new” for deaths to occur daily at hospitals elsewhere in the state, and that the JK Lon facility had seen a significant drop in mortality in recent years. While Gehlot maintained that the regional government was looking into the matter and said the death of a single child is a tragedy, his comments drew intense criticism online, where some accused the statesman of hypocrisy and double standards in light of his reaction to similar incidents in BJP-controlled districts.
The head of the BJP’s regional branch in Rajasthan, Satish Poonia, who visited JK Lon last weekend, also slammed Gehlot for showing “insensitivity” to the deaths.
“These deaths were not supposed to have occurred,” Poonia said, adding that Gehlot’s statement was “really sorrowful and disappointing.”
Members of the Congress party and other activists, meanwhile, staged a protest outside the hospital during a recent visit by former and current BJP lawmakers, arguing they were politicizing the issue.
“The visits of the leaders have further worsened the situation as the doctors and medical staff attending to the patients get distracted,” activist Anwar Ahmad, who runs a local NGO, told the PTI news agency.
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