Not hungry enough to die

On Saturday afternoon, MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh held a press conference to debunk reports of starvation deaths. He left open the pos...

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On Saturday afternoon, MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh held a press conference to debunk reports of starvation deaths. He left open the possibility of deaths due to acute malnutrition and related diseases but said that he would welcome any such evidence.

During the press conference, he read out a list of names reported in the newspapers as starvation deaths and on a case by case basis submitted facts which he said rule out starvation.

Express Picture

Some of the names mentioned on the government list had been contacted by The Indian Express during its stories. There are several discrepancies in the government version, but one instance should make the cover-up clear.

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According to the list, prepared by the Revenue Department in Gadla village of Pohri tehsil, Man Singh, two-year-old son of Karan, died on October 10 due to fever. The government claims that two quintals of wheat and one quintal of bajra were found in the house while the family owned 2.9 hectares of land.

Karan Singh, a Jatav, was contacted by Express just outside Gadla village on November 10. He said his son did have fever before he died but that he was weakened because there was no food in the house. He said he had sown bajra on his land but the crop failed completely.

Patwari Naburam Advisasi was contacted at the same time and on November 10, and he had no information of this death.

On Nov 17, a rebuttal by the CM was published in this newspaper that omitted mention of Gadla, while mentioning other villages in the report, and his secretary Gopalakrishnan said that no information had been received about Gadla.

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So the Revenue Department had no information on Man Singh till November 17 but has since managed to determine there was grain in the house with regards to a death which according to them took place on Oct 10. The crop failed, the father says there was no food, the government knows nothing about it, but says this is not a hunger death.

This photo taken on November 10 is of one-year-old Rani, sister of Man Singh, with her grandmother Dharmo. It seems there is indeed a disease running in the family. If the CM approves, we can call it hunger.