A few months ago, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cried hoarse in a revolutionary spirit of Kaagaz Nahin Dikhayenge. Now, his government wants citizens short of breath in Delhi to bring their papers with them while going to hospital.
Kejriwal’s government is well within its rights to check the papers, but did it realise who was most impacted by it? The migrant labourers of course, for they have home addresses mentioned in their papers.
On June 1, Kejriwal had sought suggestions whether outsiders should be treated in Delhi government hospitals. A week later, he announced making up his mind. Predictably, he decided to reserve beds at government hospitals for residents only.
Soon after, Lt Governor Anil Baijal moved immediately to overrule the order issued by the petulant Delhi Chief Minister. This exactly what Kejriwal had hoped for, so that the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the eco-system debates on the importance of reserving beds for residents of Delhi, thus steering away the focus away from their failures over the treatment of Coronavirus patients in their hospitals.
That’s Kejriwal for you – an unblemished anarchist. And, he has been at it ever since Chinese virus pandemic had hit Delhi.
Herein, the Supreme Court intervened to nip the bud of the anarchist Kejriwal government in the national capital, not only for treatment of Coronavirus patients in its hospitals, but also for handling dead bodies.
Hearing a suo motu case, the apex court called the situation in Delhi as horrendous, horrific and pathetic. It ripped apart the Delhi government for patients being stacked with dead bodies in its hospitals.
The apex court also questioned the government of reducing numbers of Coronavirus tests, while it had climbed up in Mumbai and other places. It further questioned whether it was trying to fake the real figures of the total number of corona positive cases in Delhi by reducing the number of tests.
In fact, media reports had suggested a massive discrepancy in the number of official Coronavirus deaths and the actual data of such deaths, recorded from crematoriums and burial grounds.
The Supreme Court also noted that the government were not even informing the families of the patients who died and sought an explanation in this regard. It flayed the government for treating patients worse than animals and dead bodies found in garbage.
Observing thus, the apex court ordered Delhi government to increase testing capacity in NCR and ensure nobody is denied tests.
Former Union Law Minister and senior counsel Ashwini Kumar had written to Chief Justice of India on June 8 highlighting the undesirable manner in which Covid patients and dead bodies of Covid victims were being handled in various parts of the country.
Kumar pointed out a news report of a Covid patient being chained to a bed in a hospital in Madhya Pradesh. He also drew the attention of the CJI to an incident from Puducherry where a dead body was thrown into a pit for burial.