Trying to give a caste colour to the swine flu deaths in the city, the BJP on Thursday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government for its “apathy” towards repeated pleas of the family of one Dr. Dinesh Singh, who died after battling the fatal virus and happened to be a Dalit. The party, which lambasted the Delhi government for doing “nothing” for the homeless, has demanded an inquiry into the deaths during the cold wave.
The Delhi BJP general secretaries and the family of the deceased alleged that the Chief Minister never gave them time despite repeated appeals.
Dr. Singh had caught swine flu from a patient last year while working as an employee of the Delhi government, the party said. “Today, to expand his political base, Mr. Kejriwal has gone to Hyderabad on government expense to sympathise with the family of Rohith Vemula. In Delhi he has been avoiding meeting the Dalit family of a government employee, Dr Singh,” said Ashish Sood, general secretary of Delhi BJP.
However, Dr. Singh’s wife Kalpana told The Hindu that the issue was beyond caste. “The last thing we want to do is play the Dalit card. We don’t come from a financially weak background, but does that mean the government isn’t responsible towards us? We had sent the Delhi government appeals for redressals at least thrice in the last year, we even mailed them several times, but to no avail,” said Kalpana, who is also a doctor.
The victim’s father, Bhup Singh, also alleged of being ill-treated by Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal. “We were instead treated with a lot of disrespect and scorn by AAP member Swati Maliwal. Close to one lakh vaccines have been introduced this year, only to prevent transfer of swine flu from patient to doctor. Why couldn’t this be done last year? The Delhi government is responsible for the death of my son,” Mr. Singh said.
The BJP also criticised the government on the issue of the homeless, saying at least seven people had died so far due to the cold. “The silence of the Delhi government in the matter speaks volumes. Last year before the elections, the AAP made the homeless shelter issue a prominent part of the agenda. After coming to power, a lot of hype was raised on the matter by the Delhi government, but today all Ministers of this government including Kejriwal have gone into hibernation,” said Rekha Gupta, general secretary of Delhi BJP.
