Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi has said he may be emotionally connected with the Amethi’s Sanjay Gandhi Hospital named after his father, but it has nothing to do with his demand for an impartial inquiry for justice as it takes generations to build an institution serving the poorest of the poor.
“I have an emotional attachment with the institution named after my father and instituted by my grandmother late Indira Gandhi. But this has nothing to do with my plea or my demand for justice,” said Varun Gandhi while speaking to the Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview on phone.
“Whether the institute is named after my father or not, it has an emotional reaction in me. But this does not have anything to do with my request,” said Varun Gandhi who on September 22 wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak requesting him to reconsider the decision to suspend the registration of the hospital.
Varun Gandhi said he was ready to speak to Pathak who was also the health minister of Uttar Pradesh.
“It is my respectful submission that institutions take an entire lifetime to build. It takes a generation to build up an institution. It is incumbent upon the government if they want to overhaul an institution or shut it down. But first provide an alternative to infrastructure which is already in place. Uttar Pradesh is a populous and a poor state. It is not easy for the people of Amethi and the people of surrounding districts to come down to Lucknow or to Allahabad (now Prayagraj) every time, specially in case of an emergency,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“It is my respectful submission that institutions take an entire lifetime to build. It takes a generation to build up an institution. It is incumbent upon the government if they want to overhaul an institution or shut it down. But first provide an alternative to infrastructure which is already in place. Uttar Pradesh is a populous and a poor state. It is not easy for the people of Amethi and the people of surrounding districts to come down to Lucknow or to Allahabad (now Prayagraj) every time, specially in case of an emergency,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Gandhi said, “I am not bringing politics into it. It is demand for justice. Do not punish the people. Punish the person who has made a mistake. You are punishing the poorest of the poor. They are already having a marginal existence.”
He said he was questioning the manner in which action has been taken against the hospital.
“I am questioning the arbitrary nature of the action. I am all for bringing the institute to accountability. But the action has to be proportionate. It cannot be that you shut down an institution for crime of one person.”
About medical negligence that allegedly led to the death of a woman who underwent treatment at the hospital and was referred to Lucknow later, he said “If a doctor has performed a negligent act, I am completely in favour of instituting an inquiry and suspending that doctor or even overhauling that department. But punishing an institution for the negligent act of one doctor is punishing those millions of people who are dependent on that institution.”
“I would like to say that in the state of Uttar Pradesh these incidents happen almost every day in every single health institution. It is not freak occurrence in a corner of U.P. So are we going to punish all the institutions like this? My submission in that you must look at overhauling, you must look at accountability, you must look at punishing the guilty. I am not against that process. My simple point is that by punishing the person guilty sends a positive message. But when you look at shutting down an entire institution that is going to take a generation to rebuild. Those people will be completely devoid of having any infrastructure.”