Retaliating to the news of Union Minister Amit Shah getting admitted into a private hospital, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor questioned the government as to why he wasn’t rather admitted to a public hospital. He said that without the support of the people in power, the common man cannot instill his trust in government-run hospitals.
The opposition party’s MP said on Monday, “Public institutions need the patronage of the powerful if they are to inspire public confidence.”
Mr Tharoor’s comments come following Amit Shah’s test reports which came out to be positive on Sunday. He is currently admitted to the Medanta hospital, a private one in Gurgaon which is Delhi’s neighboring city.
The 55-year-old Union Minister had posted his update through a tweet on Sunday, mentioning that his condition is “fine”, nevertheless he was going to get admission in a hospital as per the advice of doctors. He appealed to the people who have come in contact with him over the past few days to get isolated from others and get checked.
After sources said that Mr. Shah had been admitted to a private hospital, Mr Tharoor slammed the government’s decision to consider a private hospital for the treatment of the Centre’s minister instead of a public one which should have been the case.
Shashi Tharoor reacted to a tweet on the premier All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. AIIMS was established in 1956 when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister.
He wrote, “Wonder why our Home Minister, when ill, chose not to go to AIIMS but to a private hospital in a neighboring state. Public institutions need the patronage of the powerful if they are to inspire public confidence.”
Chief Ministers of the states Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka- Shivraj Singh Chouhan and BS Yediyurappa respectively, have also been reported to be infected with the virus. Mr. Chouhan is admitted in a private hospital in Bhopal named Chirayu Hospital while Mr Yediyurappa is getting treated at another private one in Bengaluru, Manipal Hospital.
The coronavirus has spread its effects on more than 18 lakh Indians, killing over 38,000.
Amit Shah’s test results have urged the officials to carry out rapid and intensive testing regimes to rule out the chance of his contacts being infected. All the people, including ministers who met the Union Minister sometime back, are advised to get isolated at the earliest. Due to Mr. Shah’s presence at the cabinet meeting held on 29th July for the approval of the National Education Policy, everyone who attended the conference will now have to be isolated as well. However, the meeting was held keeping all social distancing norms and restrictions in place. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman were few of the many ministers who had partaken in the vital meet.
