Yogi reduces Gorakhpur tragedy to farce: Congress

Congress on Saturday hit back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for resorting to “cheap politicking” by referring to the Gorakhpur Medical College, where several children have died, as a “picnic spot”.
 
“He has insulted the sacred memory of those helpless and poor children who died by reducing the debate to such cheap politicking as a picnic spot,” 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 the city 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 the Gorakhpur was the chief minister's Parliamentary constituency.
 
“I will leave it to the people of India to judge whether, in his anxiety to score a political point against Rahul Gandhi, the chief minister has not 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 at the BRD Medical College Hospital, apparently due to lack of adequate oxygen.
 
Congress sources said Rahul avoided a visit to the hospital as it would have inconvenienced the patients.