As the national capital gasps for breath amid the acute oxygen shortage, the Delhi government on Monday decided to convert 100 rooms of Ashoka Hotel into a Covid Health facility for Justices and other judicial officers of the Delhi High Court and their families. The official order said that Primus Hospital in Chanakyapuri will run the community health centre (CHC) facility at Ashoka Hotel.
Ironically, the order came after Delhi registered a record jump in single-day Covid deaths at 380 with 20,201 new cases the day before. The order has sparked outrage when thousands are dying outside hospitals, people watching helplessly as their relatives are dying gasping for breath, social media platforms besieged with posts from families begging for help, hospitals running out of beds and medicines, doctors breaking down as they witness the misery unfold.
We, at Outlook, decided to talk to people across the socio-political spectrum about their views on the contentious order; do they find it discriminatory?
Here’s what they believe:
“If I say as a very common person, I would wish that one of these lordships should have had the courage to come as a common man or even as a patient (God forbid). Instead of arranging 5-star facilities for themselves, they could have helped some people less privileged. It would have helped mitigate the disaster. Not only have the courts failed to safeguard the interests of the people but also at such a crucial juncture, they have collaborated with the regime to immensely enhance the suffering of the people,” Vikas Bajpai, assistant professor, JNU. He is also a national executive member of Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum.
Vikas Bajpai
“Constitutionally, there should not be any discrimination among masses. Booking a five-star hotel is not only a discrimination, but appeasement of judiciary also. Will the government make available such facilities for the sanitary workers of Covid hospitals who work on the frontlines?” asks Shahid Akhtar, senior journalist, Press Trust of India.
