The irresponsible statement by Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh to the effect that children die in the month of August any way has caused great damage to the credibility of the government and the party.

Similarly, the strategy to give a communal colour to the incident by putting the entire blame on Dr Kafeel Ahmad, who became a hero in the eyes of the public when he saved the lives of many children by arranging oxygen from his own resources, has also not met with the approval of party leaders.

Sakchi Maharaj, the BJP MP from Unnao, has demanded a high level inquiry to fix responsibility for the incident. Senior party leaders ask why the administration could not take action against the principal of the British medical college when there were already media reports about the possibility of oxygen shortage and large scale bungling. So much so that BJP MLC Devendra Pratap Singh had written to the Health Minister regarding possible bungling but still no action was taken.

The most intriguing part of the tragedy is that chief minister Yogi Adityanath had visited the medical college in his home district 48 hours before the death of children was reported but nobody told him about the shortage of oxygen.

It is difficult to believe that Yogi Adityanath, who is so powerful in his own constituency, has had no information that that wife of the medical college principal actually controlled the decision making in the day to day affairs of the institution and payment for oxygen supplier was withheld for the wrong reasons.

Many inquiries are in progress regarding the unfortunate incident, but party leaders feel that much damage has been done to the prestige of the government and the party and it would be very difficult to face the electorate in Gorakhpur and Phulpur during the forthcoming Lok Sabha by-elections. (IPA)