Rahul slams SP for Clinton bash amid encephalitis deaths

Congress trying to gain political mileage out of crisis, hits back Mulayam

Even as Uttar Pradesh is reeling under the deaths from Japanese encephalitis (JE), political parties are not above trying to get political mileage from the crisis and score points over one another.

Visiting Gorakhpur where the disease has killed nearly 300 people, most of them children or the elderly, Congress MP from Amethi Rahul Gandhi today said that the party would provide a helicopter for aerial fogging in the areas affected.

He added that he was in Gorakhpur purely out of humanitarian considerations and that his visit was not linked to politics in any way.

The party, however, did not miss out on the opportunity to slam the Samajwadi government for spending 'crores of rupees' on former US President Bill Clinton's visit to Lucknow when children were dying of the disease.

Reacting to it, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said that it was shameful that Congress was trying to make political capital out of the deaths of children. He also clarified that it was the Samajwadi Party that would bear the expense of Clinton's visit, not the state government.

However, there was no denying that Gandhi's observation were calculated to draw attention to the stark contrast between the role of the Samajwadi Party (hosting Clinton) and the Congress (providing helicopters for fogging operations).

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh conceded that the state government has a problem but said it should not be politicised. He said overcrowded hospitals in Gorakhpur were turning away children and even Lucknow had no beds for all the patients flocking hospitals there.

"We have been unable to check the spread because the right kind of vaccine has not undergone clinical trials," he said, adding that he had accompanied Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to these areas.

A Chinese vaccine, made from a weakened form of the virus, exists but India has no license to use this. India has to depend on another, less freely available virus that is expensive and requires several doses before it is effective. The Chinese vaccine is awaiting endorsement by the WHO.

Meanwhile, the state government is struggling to circumvent rules governing the virus and wondering how the problem should be addressed. "It is pigs that cause the disease. And in Gorakhpur, pigs are related to the livelihood of a large number of people. We have to be sensitive to that as well. We cannot ask people to just stop rearing pigs," Amar Singh said.

The state government needs all the help it can get with UP's health budget of around Rs 110 crore barely enough for the whole state. Uttar Pradesh Director-General of Health OP Singh said it will cost Rs 260 crore to vaccinate more than 7 million children against the disease.

Japanese encephalitis is spread mostly from pigs to people via mosquitos. Annual outbreaks occur near paddy fields where water is left to stagnate after the monsoons. Aerial fogging is a placebo, specialists say, to deal with the kind of epidemic UP (and some areas of Nepal) are facing. There is no cure for the disease but vaccination can prevent it.

If the Congress decides to assume the functions of the government and conduct fogging operations "" which have limited utility any way - JE deaths is likely to become a live political issue in Gorakhpur where more than one child dies every day.