On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while launching the Ayushman Vaya Vandana Card, expressed his inability (in what he said) to offer medical aid to the people of Delhi and West Bengal. He further blamed both the state government for not allowing the scheme in their respective states. “It hurts me to think that I am able to serve entire country but senior citizens in Delhi and Bengal are left out, I don’t want to get into political infighting but these states are playing a dirty game by stopping free treatment,” said PM Modi.
Much as expected, reaction came on Wednesday from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Convener Arvind Kejriwal, hit back at Prime Minister Narendra saying the prime minister was playing politics. “The Ayushman Bharat scheme, is a political agenda for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), let’s leave aside our perspective, even Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), found several irregularities in it.
In a long post on X in Hindi, Arvind Kejriwal said PM Modi should study the Delhi model of healthcare and replace his government’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme with it across the country for real benefit to the people. The former Delhi chief minister claimed he has yet to meet a person who got treatment through the Ayushman Bharat scheme. “Pradhan Mantri ji, Speaking wrongly over public health issue and indulging in politics on it is not right…,” Kejriwal wrote.
Kejriwal, claimed under the Delhi government scheme, each person in Delhi receives free medical treatment – the government bears the entire cost whether it’s a ₹5 pill or treatment worth ₹1 crore. The AAP Convener offered to send list of lakhs of beneficiaries of Delhi government’s health scheme.
AAP leader and Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, in a statement, claimed that the Ayushman Bharat is a “failed” scheme.
“The Delhi government hospitals provide free treatment unlike the paid treatment provided in BJP-ruled states. Delhi government health schemes are far more effective than Ayushman Bharat scheme,” Saurabh Bharadwaj asserted. He added that poor patients from states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan where the scheme was implemented, visited Delhi hospitals for surgeries.
With Delhi Assembly elections knocking at the door, its clear that both the parties are trying to encash on health. Its true that people in Delhi and West Bengal are unhappy over the state’s decision not to implement the Aushman Bharat scheme.
AAP’s Priyanka Kakkar targeted PM Modi by saying that most of the Ayushman Bharat hospitals exists on papers only. Will Kakkar care to reply to the allegations that many of the Mohalla Clinics across Delhi are mere ornamental, they do not open for months.
