TN oppn seeks answers on Jaya’s hospitalisation
Fresh question after medical report was leaked
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu opposition parties, including both the Congress and the BJP, on Thursday questioned the circumstances leading to the hospitalisation of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa last year, even as the state government set up an inquiry commission to probe the matter.
Opposition leaders questioned how her health parameters could deteriorate to such an extent that she was rushed to the hospital unconscious with high blood pressure and sugar levels.
The government came under renewed attack after a private television, quoting patient care report prepared by the hospital after Jayalalithaa was admitted there on September 22, 2016, said her blood sugar level was as high as 508 mg and BP was 140/70.
She was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state, the channel quoting the report said.
Amid claims and counterclaims, the government assigned Justice A Arumurghaswamy to probe the circumstances surrounding Jayalalithaa’s death.
The justice has been asked to submit report in three months.
The probe was one of the preconditions of the erstwhile rebel AIADMK faction led by O Panneerselvam for the merger of his group with that of chief minister K Palaniswami. The two groups had merged on August 21.
Formation of the probe panel, however, failed to dissuade the opposition from targeting the state government. The main opposition party, DMK, reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the death, while the others wonder why treatment was not arranged at her residence itself.
DMK working president MK Stalin asked for a CBI probe and also said some high-profile people needed to be examined.
“A probe by a retired judge may not be able to bring out the entire truth,” he said, adding Union ministers, AIIMS doctors, the doctor from London and the state’s acting governor C Vidyasagar Rao need to be questioned.
BJP’s state president Tamilisai Soundararajan questioned how the sugar levels went so high, asking for information on those treating her before she was taken to the hospital.
“Why was her health condition not monitored? She inaugurated the metro rail the day before she was hospitalised and she was alert,” Soundararajan said and questioned “why an ambulance was not kept ready”.
Precious time might have been lost due to this, she said.