GSVM principal lands in video row, denies anti-Muslim remarks
KANPUR: Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College (Kanpur) principal Arti Lalchandani found herself at the centre of a controversy after a video showed her allegedly describing Muslim patients at a Covid-19 hospital as terrorists who deserved to be put in jail and tortured.
For her part, the principal has denied saying anything against the Muslims. She claimed the video was morphed and words added later in order to extort money from her.
In the video leaked on Sunday, she was seen saying, “They are terrorists; we are exhausting our resources on them; we are extending our hospitality to these terrorists; Yogi (chief minister Yogi Adityanath) should have given a clear order that they would not be treated here.” She also alludes to an appeasement policy by the powers that be.
In the video, she was heard saying the district magistrate “took orders from the chief minister”.
“I am writing to the union health minister Harshvardhan (also her batchmate at the medical college) because no one listens to me,” she was seen saying in the video.
She said there was just a single case before 22 members of Tablighi Jamaat were admitted at the Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) hospital for Covid treatment. The first batch of six Jamaatis was admitted here on April 4 and the video was apparently shot around April 12. There are no Tablighi Jamaati members in hospital here now as all of them have been discharged.
“The GDP of India will contract and there will be an economic emergency. The reason for this will be these 30 crore and not the 100 crore,” she said.
These ‘terrorists’, she said, did not deserve to be put in hospital, but needed to be abandoned in the jungle.
The video was allegedly shot during Lalchandani’s interaction with a group of people, including a few reporters.
When reached for her comment, Lalchandani said the video was 70-day old and morphed to malign her.
“The words like Tablighi were added and superimposed by a journalist to blackmail and extort money from me. I will lodge an FIR with the police. This video was made at my home when I was complaining about the bad behaviour of Jamaatis who were harassing the health workers,” she said in a written statement.
“Some people are construing it as anti-Muslim. I had never anything against the Muslims. My most loved friends are Muslim faculty and students. The words were added by a journalist and I never mentioned them,” she said.
When asked, Kanpur district magistrate Brahm Dev Ram Tiwari said the issue was “in our knowledge and cognizance has been taken.”
Minister for health and medical education Suresh Khanna and state government spokesman and energy minister Shrikant Sharma did not respond on the matter. Principal secretary, medical education, Rajneesh Dubey was not available for comment.
CPI (M) politburo member Subhashini Ali said she had made a complaint against the principal with the commissioner, Kanpur division, on the issue. A lawyer, Mohammad Nasir, said he had submitted a complaint against the principal with the Kanpur SSP.