West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks that her infection had become “septic” because of wrong treatment has triggered a political row with leaders of Opposition parties raising questions on the medical infrastructure of the State government.
The Chief Minister holds the health portfolio and in her last known visit to any hospital for treatment, Ms. Banerjee went to SSKM Hospital also known as Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research. “Owing to a wrong treatment, my infection became septic. The way saline channels are made in the arm, I was in that situation for seven days. I could not get up,” Ms. Banerjee had said on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister made the remarks while trying to explain the long absence from the State Secretariat. Ms. Banerjee had said that she had been working from her home and no work of the State government was pending at her end.
However, her remarks about wrong treatment sparked strong reactions from the Opposition. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said that the Chief Minister had herself exposed the standard of treatment at the ‘super specialty hospital’.
The BJP MLA from Nandigram said that the developments were the result of an attempt to turn the State’s most prestigious government hospital into a safe haven for ‘thieves of Trinamool’.
“During the tenure of this corrupt Health Minister, the doctors here are giving less treatment and are forced to focus more on creating fake documents due to political and administrative pressure,” he added.
BJP MP and former State president Dilip Ghosh said that if the Chief Minister was administered wrong treatment, then the Health Minister needed to be sacked. “If this is the kind of treatment that our Chief Minister gets, imagine what is the fate of common people who flock to the State-run hospital,” Mr. Ghosh said.
Suvendu Adhikari challenges Mamata
Meanwhile, a fresh political front has opened after Ms. Banerjee, while defending her government on the ration scam, raised questions on properties, petrol pumps and trawlers of certain leaders of the Opposition. While Ms. Banerjee did not name Mr. Adhikari, the remarks were aimed at him.
On Thursday, Mr. Adhikari made his income tax returns public and challenged the Chief Minister to use all her might and the “investigation agencies at your disposal; such as CID, Enforcement Branch (Enforcement Directorate], Intelligence Branch [Intelligence Bureau] etc and prove that I have earned ‘a single paisa” more than what I have declared or have amassed any disproportionate asset or property”.
Mr. Adhikari dared the Chief Minister “to publicly release the copy of the title deed of the land, situated at Harish Chatterjee Street; Kalighat, Kolkata, where you have been residing by occupying the land”.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh hit back saying that the Chief Minister made no direct accusations or single out any individual, yet Mr. Adhikari rushed to pre-emptively tweet his income tax returns.
“Why would he be so quick to react unless he felt threatened or exposed? Why would a leader, who claims innocence, feel compelled to go to such lengths to prove it? What is he so desperate to hide?,” the Trinamool spokesperson said.
