What happened at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital where 60 children died allegedly due to disruption of oxygen supply in the paediatrics ward is a mind-numbing tragedy. There can be no defense whatsoever for the criminal negligence that led to this tragedy.
I also count myself amongst those who are striving to build a robust right-liberal ecosystem in India to take on those from the Left who have for long enjoyed state patronage and are deeply entrenched. However, this should not blind us to our own faults or make us exactly like those whom we oppose. This short note is an appeal to my right-liberal friends to focus on the “Right” fight and not lose focus.
In commenting on the Gorakhpur tragedy many of those subscribing to the right-liberal ideology (don’t like this name but using it for convenience and because it is most in vogue) have either reacted churlishly or not at all – both are in my opinion wrong. The fact is that this was a tragedy that happened on Adityanath’s watch and no matter how we look at it the buck stops with him.
I would request my friends who subscribe to this right-liberal ideology to mull over the following:
(1) I saw a few posts that speculated about something being fishy and this being a grand conspiracy to tarnish the image of the UP CM – My take on this is that in the absence of credible proof/evidence shooting darts in the air is simply not done. Order an enquiry by all means and if it does show that this was indeed a grand conspiracy then bring the roof down and the axe as well on the perpetrators. Till such time indulging in speculation will be construed as muddying the waters.
(2) Adityanath and his government owe an apology to the parents and wards who lost their children – In fact, this is the first thing that should have been done. Instead, there were attempts to deflect the blame – again not done.
(3) Those that subscribe to this right-liberal ideology must understand that subscribing to an ideology does not necessarily mean that they must also support all of what a person who they think represents this ideology does. It is the job of those who are believed to be the thought leaders (de facto or de jure) within this ecosystem to sift facts from fiction and differentiate between subjective analysis and objective assessment. – Not doing this will mean that we will be guilty of the same kind of obfuscation we accuse the leftist-lutyens cabal of.
(4) Finally, this is a tragedy that has no defence – none whatsoever. The responsibility falls squarely on Adityanath. – Bringing up other instances where the leftists did not “outrage enough” is a sorry argument to make. It belittles us as humans. This is not the time. If we do that, how can we claim to be different from them then?
