‘Polarisation Replaced Vikaas’: Shivam Singh on Resigning From BJP
Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
“The 2014 Lok Sabha election was fought on a plank of development, but 2019 seems to be fought on polarisation. Right now, the party is governed by two strong individuals whom everyone is really scared of. No one really voices their concerns to them,” said Shivam Shankar Singh, who was until recently an active Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker.
Singh joined the party in 2013, when it was riding the high tides of the Narendra Modi wave – “trusting” the then Gujarat chief minister’s development vision for the country. However, in May 2018, the former BJP worker decided that he could no longer be associated with the party.
Singh, who had earlier handled data analytics for the BJP, wrote a blog – ‘Why I Am Resigning From BJP’ – which went viral just hours after it was posted. In the post, he listed the good, the bad and the ugly of the four-year-old Modi-led government at the Centre, and argued that he could no longer support the BJP, “which is pushing the national discourse in a dark corner”.
“This isn’t something I signed up for,” he wrote in his piece.
Also Read: Why I Am Resigning From the BJP
In an interview with The Quint, Singh talked about what he signed up for when he joined the BJP and what made him change his mind.
Why Did He Resign From the BJP?
Singh said one of the predominant reasons for his resignation comes from the party not delivering the promises it made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He said while party members and karyakartas spoke about the problems the government was facing, “nothing was actually done about it.”
When asked for an example, Singh pointed at the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, a flagship programme that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – in which each MP was required to adopt three villages and develop them into ideal villages.
Hidden Serial Numbers on Electoral Bonds Another Reason
The former BJP worker, who has worked actively for the party in Tripura and Manipur, also alleged that electoral bonds were a huge issue.
An investigation by The Quint has revealed that the much-hailed electoral bonds, which were meant to usher in an era of taint-free financing for political parties, carry a secret number “visible on the top-right corner of the original document showing fluorescence, when examined under Ultra Violet (UV) Light.”
“But even graver was the secret hidden numbers on the bonds, exposed by The Quint”, said Singh. He reiterated that the presence of the secret number meant that donors could be traced, which defeated the purpose of anonymity of the bonds.
“This also explains how corruption is reduced at the ministerial level – it isn’t per file/order, it is now like the US – at the policy level,” wrote Patna-based Singh.
‘BJP Resorting to Religious Polarisation’
Speaking to The Quint, Singh claimed that the ruling party is resorting to religious polarisation because “there is no message of development anymore.”
‘Was Not Threatened By Anyone’
Singh claims that when he wrote the blog, it was done to “simplify” his life as people questioned him about his anti-BJP social media posts, thinking he was still working with the party.
“I just wrote a blog so that I could share the link with everyone. I was tired of explaining why I decided to quit the BJP. To my surprise, the blog went viral. But what is even more surprising is that I did not receive any threat from the party supporters,” says the ex-BJP worker.
He said people told him that he raised “genuine” questions through his blog, questions that “everyone in the country wanted to raise.”
‘Stand Up to the Leaders’
Singh made an appeal to the other BJP workers, to raise these questions with the party leaders. He further appealed to the “reasonable people” in the party to stop supporting the alleged agenda of polarisation. He said:
While his long-term goal is to work on policy issues related to Bihar, right now he is planning to educate voters about the importance of their votes ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Courtesy: www.thequint.com
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
