News reports had emerged from Bharatpur district of Rajasthan last Saturday where a father of a new-born alleged that doctors at the government hospital turned him and his pregnant wife away after learning that they are Muslims and referred the case to Jaipur. The pregnant woman delivered the baby in the ambulance but the newborn died soon after. The media immediately grabbed on the sensational headline of the case and milked it to give a religious angle without doing any due diligence. Now according to a report in The Indian Express, a report by the administration has concluded that this charge could not be proven.
“On being asked whether they refused to treat them because they were Muslims and misbehaved with them, he (the father) said they didn’t say personally that you are a Muslim and we wouldn’t treat you,” states the report prepared by Ummedi Lal Meena, secretary, Urban Improvement Trust, Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The report adds that the sister-in-law of Khan’s wife had said in her statement that the staff at the Bharatpur hospital referred them to Jaipur, but did not abuse or heckle them or discriminated because they were Muslim.
Aise to na kahi ki tum musalmaan ho (they didn’t say you are Muslim): This testimony is equally important as the one by the man claiming his wife was turned away from Bharatpur hospital for being a Muslim. #Rajasthan
@vishvendrabtp @Soumyadipta pic.twitter.com/wbpJILlZSg
— प्रो. राकेश गोस्वामी / Prof. Rakesh Goswami (@DrRakeshGoswami) April 5, 2020
Interestingly, the patient was anemic & undergoing her seventh pregnancy at the age of 32. The patient was referred to a better hospital to save the 7th pregnancy as the attending doctor clearly did not have the resources to attend such a critical case. Journalist Soumyadipta took to Twitter to break down the referral slip of the pregnant lady.
https://twitter.com/Soumyadipta/status/1246656846166818816
The report also has the statement of one Dr. Rekha Jharwal who attended to Khan’s wife Parveena. “She was seven months pregnant and was bleeding excessively. Because of this, the woman had become too weak and the child’s heartbeat couldn’t be heard.” The doctor explained the patient severe anaemic condition
She further added that “After seeing this serious condition, the advice was given to send her to the women’s hospital Jaipur and after her relatives agreed, she was referred following initial treatment. I have not misbehaved with the woman and her relatives and neither were they refused treatment owing to them being Muslim.”
Tourism Minister of Rajasthan and Congress leader Vishvendra Singh was relatively quick to jump the gun and took to Twitter to claim that the pregnant Muslim woman was refused admission in a hospital by one Dr. Muneet Valia “because she was a Muslim.” The minister did not bother waiting for even a preliminary investigative report but instead tried to paint it on the religious discrimination lines.
https://twitter.com/vishvendrabtp/status/1246352397489688577
Initially, the father had claimed that the hospital staff thought they were connected to Tablighi Jamaat. The same Jamaat which has wreaked havoc upon the country and caused an exponential spurt in Wuhan virus cases across the country. The organization is under severe scrutiny from all quarters and therefore this misdemeanor of religious-discrimination is being seen as an attention-diverting technique by the ‘secular’ media and Congress.
The ‘secular’ media has been trying to eke out ways to take the light away from the Tablighi Jamaat perpetrators and consequently is trying to usurp such controversies that have the risk of flaring communal riots too. Circulating uncooked half stories based on hearsay and allegations are all classic ploys by the left-liberals to peddle their propaganda and hide the criminal organisations like Tablighi Jamaat, something which the readers should be wary of.