- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Yogi Adityanath, the controversial chief minister of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, has said that hospitals conveyed wrong information over availability of oxygen when the Covid-19 crisis peaked in the country.
In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, UK, the Hindu monk-politician from India’s most populous state, said the opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were behind drumming up the claims about shortage of oxygen supplies to the needy.
“There were some people who played politics in this, and some people did not like what the Prime Minister was saying and were dissatisfied with the BJP government’s initiative,” Adityanath, who is often accused of stoking communal tension and making controversial moves as an administrator, said. Adityanath had never spoken to the international media till this interview.
‘Why run away from oxygen audit?’
“Hospitals, including some in Uttar Pradesh, started putting boards outside that said they do not have oxygen and sent out magistrates there, we realised they have it in abundant quality,” he said, adding: “We also created an oxygen audit in Uttar Pradesh which had great results. Some people ran away from the oxygen audit. If you are being honest, then why would you run away from the oxygen audit?”
Adityanath’s government faced a heavy criticism in the recent past for allowing the police to file charges against individuals and hospitals claiming shortages of oxygen. This came after residents of his state made desperate pleas for oxygen cylinders on social media for their loved ones and doctors in the state told The Telegraph that the state government was trying to hide the facts.
Adityanath slams China over pandemic
The 49-year-old former member of the Indian Parliament, who is often seen as the next big face from the BJP on the national stage after Prime Minister Modi, also slammed China during the interview saying the coronavirus could be a biological weapon.
“We are facing this pandemic currently and there are different theories in the world about it. But its origin and where it came from should be a topic of inquiry for certain,” the firebrand leader, who will seek his second mandate next year, said.
“What is the reason behind it; is it a virus, or a biological war strategy against the world and mankind? This is a topic worth investigating. All the countries in the world and democratic people and leaders around the world must think about this,” he added.
The BJP governments at India’s Centre as well as in UP have been criticised over their handling of the second wave of the pandemic that has been devastating. Adityanath told The Telegraph that the state “may not be an emblematic champion of prevention” but also alleged that it was being blamed alone.
“To begin with, the second wave of Covid-19 was quite severe and for a little while, it overwhelmed the system. The extent of the severity of the mutant virus was also not known and I don’t think many of us were prepared to tackle that level of severity,” he said.
Adityanath backs his own government’s Covid response
“While the other states were fumbling around for a response to the second wave, we increased testing and imposed a partial curfew to ensure lives and livelihoods instead of a full lockdown. I myself have been travelling across the state and reviewing the on-ground situation,” the chief minister added. He also said that countries with stronger healthcare infrastructure and much smaller population that India had also struggled to deal with the pandemic’s outbreak.
Adityanath also said that UP would be better prepared to cope with any future waves of the virus and praised Modi saying he led from the front to save the country from the disaster.
India has seen more than 29 million people getting hit by the virus with a death toll of more than 380,000 but some quarters believe the actual number could be much higher.
