Bhartiya Janata Party National President Amit Shah on Monday said that the Gorakhpur hospital incident, where more than 63 children died in five days, is not a new one. Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Monday, he called the incident a tragedy, “a mistake that happened at some level, but you cannot deny our aim to help”, reported NDTV.
Shah added that action will be taken against the guilty only after an investigation. “The chief minister has instituted a time-bound inquiry,” said Shah, according to The Hindu. “Once the report is submitted, we will make it public and take action against those responsible.”
When asked whether Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath should resign on the grounds of moral responsibility for the children’s deaths, the Rajya Sabha MP said, “The work of the Congress is only to ask for resignations.”
The children are believed to have died after an alleged oxygen supply failure in the ward, though the state government has maintained that they died of encephalitis.
Shah also defended Adityanath on planning grand Janmashtami celebrations in the state. The BJP president said everybody was pained by the death of the children, but Janmashtami was not a government programme. “Janamashtmi is a matter of people’s personal belief and faith, it is not a government festival,” he said.
In a communique issued on Sunday to the Director General of Police Sulkhan Singh, Adityanath had said, “Krishna Janmashtami is an important festival and the police should organise it in a traditional and grand way.”
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