BJP says AAP responsible for death of 3 sisters due to starvation in Delhi; Congress attacks both parties

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sparred on Thursday over the deaths of three sisters, possibly because of starvation, in the Capital’s Mandawali area even as the Congress blamed both the central and state governments for the incident.

Doctors said the three sisters, aged eight, four and two years who died in a hospital on Tuesday, succumbed to “gross malnutrition” and that their stomachs absolutely empty, with no trace of fat on their bodies.

The BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, and Maheish Girri raised the matter in the Lok Sabha, claiming there was a “ration scam” in Delhi and subsidised grain was not reaching the poor.

Bidhuri said the AAP government only indulges in blame games as he pointed out that the area where the children lived falls in the constituency of Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

Congress’ member of Parliament Deepender Hooda said both the city government and Centre were responsible for the deaths and that they cannot “wash their hands” of the incident.

“It is unfortunate that Delhi being the capital of one of the most powerful countries of the world has had to see starvation deaths. It is absolutely unacceptable,” Hooda said while speaking to reporters outside Parliament.

The AAP government, on its part, said it has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the deaths. AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj tweeted that the Delhi government’s attempts to introduce the doorstep delivery of ration to the poor was being blocked by the BJP and Lieutenant Governor.

“We gave an immediate financial aid of Rs 25,000. Their mother will be admitted to the hospital and we will make sure that she gets the best treatment. Once their father returns we’ll provide more financial help,” Sisodia was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

“Our system has failed. I have sought a report from ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) whether these were people on our records. If yes, then why were these girls not helped?” Sisodia said.

The girls were taken to a hospital by their landlord’s son and his friend on Tuesday after he was found out that all the three children had fainted. Doctors at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital pronounced them dead on arrival.

Officials believe their mother is mentally unstable and their father, a rickshaw puller, has not returned home and efforts are on to find him. Police also said the woman failed to help them establish the sequence of events.

“When we tried to ask her if she had fed the children properly, she did not have any satisfactory reply. She only nodded or said no. We have not been able to get details from her. She is also not aware of the whereabouts of her husband,” a police officer probing the incident said.