The death toll in the tragedy at BRD Medical college in Gorakhpur has reached 79, but there are no signs of the government focusing its priorities on the well being of citizens. Instead, the government and its obedient hordes on social media continue to seek scapegoats that would let those responsible for governance off the hook – no matter the cost.

What exactly happened?

When BRD Medical college did not pay their supplier of liquid oxygen since November 2016, the bills kept mounting. Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd kept the supply going on humanitarian grounds for months, while demanding payments for the dues. The college did not pay. Finally, the supplier stopped the supply of oxygen to the hospital, leading to the deaths of large numbers of children and some adults – patients who were dependent on oxygen for survival.

Why were the bills not paid?

The hospital had 3.86 crore in its account on Wednesday. Yet the dues were not paid, putting patients at risk.

Multiple sources have revealed to the media that the payments were held back due to the supplier not paying kickbacks to people in key positions in the government.

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  Health department source informs Rajiv Mishra was instructed to withold payments for lack of kickbacks
  
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  Informed sources in the medical college told DailyO that payments are routinely held till kickbacks to various officials are paid
  
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  Scroll reports salaries of at least 400 medical personnel have not been paid for many months
  

What else do we know about the health priorities about UP government?

Well, here is how it is.

Talk of seriously warped priorities.

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  UP has ambulances for cows with a veterinarian in each! (human ambulances don’t have doctors)
  
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  Humans must have Aadhaar if they want to use govt ambulance service
  

What action taken?

Well, Yogi Adityanath promised action and was dutifully and unquestioningly reported by a gushing media. Sakshi Maharaj called it a massacre. Clearly, BJP, as always was going to be “not responsible”. Enter the mission bakra hunt!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvdOdI9-EaE

So who are the villains now?

Pushpa Sales

The supplier of oxygen, who provided oxygen to the medical college for months in spite of non-payment of dues and had to stop, because their supplier refused to give them more credit when the hospital wouldn’t release funds… well, the government is booking them for holding back supply of life saving oxygen.

Dr. Rajiv Mishra

The principal of BRD medical college has been suspended – why is uncelar, because the UP government insists no one died because of lack of oxygen. The doctor says he anticipated this coming and had resigned. He had allegedly been instructed to hold back payments to Pushpa Sales.

Dr. Kafeel Ahmad

Dr Kafeel Ahmad appears to have been tossed on the heap mostly because he’s an attractive target to trolls – likely because he is a Muslim, because otherwise, it is clear that he worked hard and at own expense to save lives of children when oxygen ran out. He still saw 60 die.

And of course, Muslim target locked, we have the usual suspects rewriting reality to coddle their masters. India Samvad and several other BJP mouthpieces put out articles slandering Dr. Kafeel Ahmad with their usual sleaze. Some of the nonsense put out is addressed here.

Apparently Dr. Kafeel Ahmad was caught appearing in medical exams on behalf of someone else, is a rapist, was suspended by Manipal university over criminal charges, verdict upheld by High Court ….. and other random results they could quickly cobble together in order to discredit him. 

Dubious stories and irrelevant to his actions in the emergency, regardless. Even if the stories were true, none of them explain why the oxygen bills were not paid by the hospital. And even if all the stories were true, it doesn’t change the fact that he did save lives.

Dr. Kafeel Ahmad has a private practice. 

I dare BJP to enforce that doctors in government hospitals can’t have private practice. All doctors in government hospitals have private practice. But wait. BJP would probably happily do it, given their overall goal to collapse and privatize healthcare anyway.

Deaths only happened in Dr. Kafeel Ahmad’s ward, when there were also other adults depending on oxygen – who would have been at risk too, if oxygen supply was really cut off – inplying that Dr Kafeel Ahmad was somehow responsible for the deaths and not oxygen deprivation.

Flat out lie – Gorakhpur newsline reports the deaths of 18 adults as well.

The only thing abundantly clear at this point is that the BJP machine cares not a hoot for accountability and will punish others for their own actions and irresponsibility. There is still no explanation for why the hospital did not pay for life essential oxygen on time. Was there a scarcity of funds? Were there funds withheld? Who is to blame for the non-payment and will the heads of people responsible for these dead children AND adults ever face any consequences, or will random people continue to be persecuted and coverups splashed in social media till people tire of expecting accountability from this plague masquerading as a political party on yet another subject?