VIPs lecture on as wounded suffer

Victims lay neglected as the medical staff stood in attendance to the VIPs. And to hog the limelight Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma and his cabinet colleagues stood outside the emergency entrance of the hospital giving long lectures on the incompetence of the police.

The emergency ward was too cramped and the help at hand was initially inadequate. Then the chief minister came and created more chaos. Sahib Singh flanked by his cabinet colleagues including transport minister Rajender Gupta and health minister Dr Harshvardhan came to the hospital. They were surrounded by their hangers-on and their Personal Security Officers (PSO).

They kept gettingin and out of the emergency ward talking to the victims. They were followed by senior officials of the Income Tax Department, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the health department and even the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The VIPs were all trying to talk to the victims even before they received treatment. And the doctors busied themselves talking to the VIPs leaving the injured groaning in pain.

The police too added to the chaos. They grilled the injured, asking for clues, descriptions of the perpetrators of the blast. “I want my son,” screamed a victim as doctors plastered his fractured leg.

“At the hospital they just did not know what to do with the victims. The people and the police were rushing in victims in large numbers. They were just bundled on the floor,” said Satpal a driver who had brought some of the accused to the hospital.

Satish Kumar, one of the injured echoed. “The hospital staff floundered and kept running creating more panic. Though I was not injured seriously they picked me first. When I protested a guard told me to either get treated or disappear,” he said.

Meanwhile, just outside the emergency ward anxious relatives desperate sought information about the well being of their injured kin only to be ticked off not only by the police but also by the hospital staff. This situation prevailed for almost three hours after the incident till an angry relative rushed to Sahib Singh as he held his “durbar” outside the emergency ward. “Will you stop your lecture and please see that we get information of our relatives,” he screamed.