Demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the All India Students’ Association (AISA) organised a protest at Jantar Mantar here on Sunday against the death of several children in Gorakhpur.
Slogans against PM
The protest was attended by students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Ambedkar University Delhi, along with teachers and activists like Gauhar Raza and Shabnam Hashmi.
The protesters raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UP Chief Minister. AISA national president Sucheta De said, “The country is celebrating its 70th Independence Day even as people are dying because of poverty, caste and religion. This was not the ideology our leaders had when the country attained freedom.”
No funds
According to Ms. De, despite being a government hospital, Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College allegedly didn’t have the funds required to to save 60 children.
Mr. Raza, a scientist and a poet, said, “These days, politicians wear a robe of corruption under which the common man suffers. It’s ironic that people are dying because of shortage of oxygen in the 21st century. Should we be proud of such corruption?”
Addressing protesters, Mr. Raza asked them to strengthen their resolution against corruption.
‘Negligence by govt’
The protesters said the deaths of the children were a massacre caused because of negligence on the part of the government.
Laying the blame on the Modi-led government, CPI (ML) member Raja Bahuguna asked the Prime Minister to address two issues — the Gorakhpur deaths and the Chandigarh stalking incident — in his Independence Day speech. “It’s sad that in a country which has an ambulance service for cows, children are dying due to shortage of oxygen in hospitals,” he said.