A slap on the face of healthcare workers, patients and family who suffered due to lack of oxygen supply in Delhi
In April, the second wave of lethal COVID pandemic swept through the country. The dirty politics over oxygen supply in Delhi were going on even then. The Delhi government was blaming the Centre for not providing enough supply. The Centre was blaming Kejriwal for not being mindful of the usage, wasting it or even exaggerating it. However, recently the dirty politics have turned even uglier. A report submitted to SC suggests that the Delhi government exaggerated its need for oxygen by 4 times. And obviously, people are sharing this relentlessly all over social media. And what it actually is- a big slap on the face of everyone who suffered physical & mental trauma and even lost lives due to the lack of oxygen.
Needless to say it goes for the healthcare workers who were trying their best to save lives and felt helpless due to the lack of oxygen, for the patients and their family who lost their special ones due to the same.
SC Panel’s report on “Delhi’s exaggerated oxygen need”
In an interim report of a subgroup that has been submitted by the Centre to the Supreme Court says “there is a gross discrepancy (about four times) in that the actual oxygen consumption claimed (1140MT) was about 4 times higher than the versus calculated consumption by formula for bed capacity (289MT),” Delhi government was accused of using the wrong formula
A PESO study, a central government unit, stated that Delhi has surplus oxygen, which in fact, affected the supply of Liquid Oxygen Supply to the rest of the states.
Delhi Government defends the accusation of exaggerating the oxygen needs
In response to the “wrong formula used”, Delhi government stated that the calculations made were based on the active cases which were around 1lakh at that time, and were fully in line with the ICMR guidelines.
Also, as per Delhi Government assumption of Centre considering “only 50% of non ICU beds used oxygen” was also wrong in context to the respiratory disease like COVID-19
The AAP government claims that the data has errors, the report is full of lies and is in fact, not even signed or approved.
The twitter movement
There is no doubt that in today’s age, India is widely distributed in two parts when it comes to political opinion. As soon as the new report made it to the headlines, the twitter was filled with people favoring the Centre making tweets against the Delhi Government. And by many, the shortage is being described as artificial.
Was the shortage of Oxygen in Delhi artificial?
This would be better answered by people who actually lived the nightmare. Hospitals were writing letters to the government about how their oxygen is on the verge of getting exhausted and the “n” number of people who will die if they don’t get any help on SOS basis. It really did result into patients losing their lives- inside and outside the hospital. The social media was full of people asking for leads for oxygen cylinders.
International aid and the image of India overseas
India has received 17,755 oxygen concentrators and 15,961 oxygen cylinders in foreign aid till May 23, according to the health ministry data.
Along with the official International Government bodies, there were plenty of private donors- including cricketers, celebrities, etc. that provided help India during the need. The Indian Government is already being questioned for not providing RTI to the ‘PM Care Funds’ or spending US190$ for “Central Vista Redevelopment Project” when the country is already going through an economic crisis. While the government is washing dirty laundry publicly and news of exaggeration of oxygen demand will be surfaced all over the internet, the credibility of India asking for help may face an impact too.
Dirty politics and shameful blame games turning into insensitivity towards sufferers.
When a person who has suffered a grievous blow looks at a news headline stating that the demand of oxygen supply was exaggerated and even artificial- it is infuriating. And once again, they feel helpless!
As important as it is to hold the government accountable for its shameful act of blame game instead of taking accountability for its action. It is as important to not undermine the struggle that people have been through.
Irrespective of the fact that one supports the left wing or right wing, supports Narendra Modi or Kejriwal.., one needs to be a little mindful of the people who have actually suffered due to the lack of oxygen.
- Mindful of the people who were scared to death while working in the hospital as they knew that within an hour they would run out of oxygen and people would start to die.
- Mindful of the people who were on the top of the management in the hospital and were crying out (like beggars!) over the internet for some sort of leads that would help them get oxygen cylinders, somehow after they lost hope from the Government
- Mindful of the patients who had a family to support, but lost their lives
- Mindful of the children who either lost the main source of income of the family, who became orphans
Not a lot of people understand grief very well. As far as I know, the guilt of not being able to help and save your family member is carried till the end of life.
I wouldn’t conclude the article deciding which government is at fault and which isn’t. Not because I don’t have a political opinion, but because I want the focus of this piece to be towards the sensitivity of people who have suffered.
Very good post about the dirty politics over Oxygen supply in Delhi. Highly informative and nicely written. Keep up the good work.
This is very bad
Cool content. This should be a stepping stone