When the country was reeling under the impact of the second wave of the pandemic last year with citizens struggling to procure beds, medicines and oxygen, doctor and social activist Kafeel Khan had this feeling of déjà vu. In August 2017, he witnessed the deaths of 63 children and 18 adults when the Baba Raghav Das Medical College’s Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, ran out of oxygen supply.
The doctor, who was subsequently arrested and imprisoned, until the charges were dropped, documented his experience in his book, ‘The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy – A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’. At the book launch in Bengaluru on Monday, Dr. Kafeel recalled his fight for justice. “Everybody knew of my story in bits and pieces. The second wave and resultant citizens’ suffering was a déjà vu of the 54 hours of struggle five years ago. Nobody knows how my family has suffered, nobody talks about the suffering of the 80 families who lost their loved ones,” he said. He alleged that the root of the tragedy was the fact that the Uttar Pradesh Government didn’t pay ₹68 lakh for oxygen procurement.
“One day, I was hailed as a hero. The Government machinery changed the narrative and the mainstream media also bought into it and labelled me a murderer,” he said, adding that the people in power, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, made him a scapegoat.
When asked if the Yogi Aditynath government made him a scapegoat because of his religion, Dr. Kafeel said that the Chief Minister and others were desperate to save themselves. “The same thing would have happened to anyone. However, the story is easy to sell because of my religion,” he said.
He recounts the ordeal of being imprisoned for nearly nine months in his book. “There was one toilet for 200 prisoners in one barrack. In the other barrack, there was just one UP minister and four others to serve him. If one has money, the prison term will be comfortable,” he said.
Policy analyst K. C. Raghu, senior journalist M. A. Siraj, Vice President of Medical Service Centre K. S. Gangadhar, and others were present at the launch.
