Gorakhpur tragedy: Shiv Sena raps Yogi Adityanath government for ‘mass murder’ of children

In an editorial in the party’s mouthpiece, Saamana, the Shiv Sena demanded that UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh be ousted

The Shiv Sena on Monday criticised the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for the death of nearly 60 children at a Gorakhpur hospital, terming the incident “mass murder”.

The scene at Gorakhpur hospital on Sunday. (HT)

In an editorial in the party’s mouthpiece, Saamana, the Shiv Sena demanded that UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh be ousted for saying that children die anyway in August. “Why does this happen only to the poor? Why does this phenomenon not happen to the ministers and the rich?” asked the editorial.

“If this minister was from the Congress or from the Samajwadi Party, political leaders would have thrown him to the gallows by now,” the Shiv Sena said.

Children at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College allegedly died within a week owing to a disruption in the oxygen supply. The state’s health minister has, however, said the deaths were not oxygen-related.

The party said it was unfortunate that some leaders had dismissed the incident.

It added that the plight of the poor did not unsettle the country’s political administrators, terming it “the biggest failure of India’s independence”.

“This despair is the real ‘Mann ki baat,’ but instead of understanding it, it is made fun of,” the Shiv Sena said in a veiled taunt at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public outreach radio programme.