Union Minister for Women Welfare and Child Development Smriti Irani has been at the centre of the topic of discussion for her statements against the Gandhi family. Regardless of the subject, Irani somehow manages to end up hitting out at Rahul Gandhi and his family. Her statements however, contain more of baseless information intended to take personal jabs at Gandhi and less of factual intelligence. Anything from her constituency of Amethi that goes against her agenda is met with dismissive comments from Irani.
This is a democracy and people have every right to question their leaders, which Irani should understand. Irani, however, is prone to handle the issues with a rather aggressive, lordly approach which often lands her in trouble. The licence of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Amethi has been revoked over the alleged negligence of the hospital staff that led to the death of a woman who was admitted at the hospital for a minor surgery. Technically, the matter should have been a concern for the district or the village where the hospital is located. It became a bigger news credit to the trust the hospital belongs to and the way it was suspended. Smriti Irani, Rahul Gandhi and Gandhi family are connected to this issue which is why the matter was blown out of proportion.
It is no secret that Irani’s obsessive pattern to drag Rahul Gandhi in any and every matter presents BJP an opportunity to divert the public attention from the main issue. Amethi has long been a stronghold of the Gandhi family. Rahul Gandhi himself won from the constituency for three consecutive times before losing to Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Rahul had defeated Irani in the previous general elections but after his defeat in 2019, Irani arrogantly claimed that her victory meant that the people of Amethi had driven Rahul away.
In competitions and elections, someone is bound to lose while someone is assured of a victory. Irani’s arrogance therefore makes her look shallow as people have voted her for a specific parliamentary term and not forever. A slightly valid opposition is enough to shake Irani’s insecurities which lead to her making baseless comments. The hospital whose licence has been suspended is run by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust headed by former Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, while Priyanka Vadra Gandhi along with Rahul are the board members. When the woman patient who was admitted to the hospital died, her family filed a complaint with the Collector and Health Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Taking immediate note of the complaint, the State government suspended the licence of the hospital. This was the only big hospital in the region and suspension directly affects thousands of patients visiting it for the treatment. There are a few more hospitals in the area but they’re not as well equipped as the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. Secondly, revocation of the hospital’s licence has left nearly 400 of its staff unemployed.
People have held Irani responsible for these turn of events. She, as representative of the constituency, should have resolved the issue by showing her political maturity. Instead, she chose to show the lack of it by supporting the State government’s decision. The decision to suspend the licence of the hospital based on the complaint of the patient’s family is a stretch. The accusations of negligence made by patients’ family members are not new. Every patient’s family feels that the hospital did not do enough to take care of their loved ones. The accusations sometimes are true, however, sometimes they are made due to personal expectations. Things become clear at the end of an inquiry.
If the government thought that negligence was the reason behind the patient’s death, the hospital authorities should have been interrogated and taken action against the responsible doctor/staff. How is it fair to shut down the entire hospital? This decision benefits neither the hospital staff nor the thousands of patients who come there to receive medical treatments. The hospital staff is protesting against the move but instead of actually looking into the matter, Irani is busy blaming the Congress party. This reflects Irani’s intense hate towards the Gandhi family. Be it the ‘flying kiss’ fiasco or other incidents where she had held Rahul Gandhi responsible, she has fallen straight on her face. Irani must remember that her words can bring her own party down, along with herself.
