'Yogi reduced Gorakhpur tragedy to farce'

The Congress on Saturday hit back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for resorting to “cheap politicking” by referring to Gorakpur as a “picnic spot”.

“He (Adityanath) has insulted the sacred memories of those helpless and poor children who died, by reducing the debate to such cheap politicking,” AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.

Adityanath had taken a jibe at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Gorakhpur saying the prince sitting in Delhi cannot make Gorakhpur a “picnic spot”.

Singhvi said the chief minister was “100% right” when he said that Gorakhpur was not a picnic spot. “Gorakhpur has been turned into a murderous spot by utter negligence, lack of accountability and total callousness,” he said, pointing out that Gorakhpur was the chief minister’s parliamentary constituency.

“I will leave it to the people of the country to judge whether, in his anxiety to score a political point against Rahul, the chief minister has reduced this serious, terrible, tragic episode to a farce,” the Congress spokesperson said.

Rahul was on a visit to Gorakhpur on Saturday to meet the family members of the children who died in the BRD Medical College Hospital, apparently due to lack of adequate oxygen.

The Congress sources said Rahul avoided a visit to the hospital as it would have inconvenienced the patients.

DH News Service