A section of the journalists and social media influencers have unleashed an organized hate campaign Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya for exposing the BBMP bed allocation scam.
The BJP MP on Tuesday held a press conference in which he said that a major bed allocation scam was unearthed during a surprise audit of the centralised bed allocation system.
He elaborated on the modus operandi used by the ‘bed mafia’ to create an artificial scarcity of beds by blocking them in the name of asymptomatic patients.
“During the audit, we noticed that 4,065 beds had undergone auto-unblocking. After we called up the patients against whose name the bed was initially blocked (booked), we learnt that they were all in home isolation and had never got admitted to the hospital. The BU number of a single patient in home isolation is being used to block 5-20 beds, which are then sold to other patients for a hefty sum,” the Bengaluru South MP said in a press conference on Tuesday.
After the expose, another video started doing the rounds on social media in which Tejasvi Surya along with MLAs Ravi Subramanya and Sathish Reddy can be seen questioning officials of the BBMP South Zone. In this video, Tejasvi Surya can be heard listing out some Muslim names asking on what basis they were hired.
Following this, a section of the media started sensationalizing the issue with a communal spin accusing Tejasvi Surya of ‘communalising’ the issue because Tejasvi listed out Muslim names. One of the first media to pounce was The News Minute which published an article titled “In the guise of exposing corruption, Tejasvi Surya is back to his communal tricks”. The insinuating article accused Tejasvi Surya and his colleagues of being part of a ‘hate ecosystem’ and went on to add that this was an ‘antic’ by the MP to deflect attention from the ‘inaction’ and ‘criminal negligence’ of the Modi government at the Centre.
It is pertinent to note that the news outlet’s Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran had tweeted that many private hospitals had reached out to her about people manning BBMP helplines asking for a cut for booking the bed.
However, it is said that the Joint Commissioner removed all the 17 people from the war room two days before the expose. This was apparently confirmed by the Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike by sources at the MP’s office.
Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner of BBMP who found himself in the midst backlash had taken to Facebook and had clarified the issue. Tejasvi Surya also spoke to Sarfaraz Khan and said that he never blamed him or his community and appreciated the office for his sincerity. He also extended his support to the officer’s work.
Following the expose by Tejasvi Surya, four people – Netravati, Dr. Rehan, Rohit and Shashi – have been arrested in connection with the case and FIRs have been registered. The case has now been transferred to Central Crime Branch (CCB).
BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta has said that specially constituted committee is looking into the bed allocation system. He said that the agency which BBMP had deployed is also being questioned and that the civic body is thinking of changing the agency. He also admitted there have been few cases of mischief which are being investigated. Mr. Gupta speaking about the expose of Tejasvi Surya said that there is nothing communal in the issue.
It must also be mentioned that Tejasvi never said these are the people involved in the scam. He merely questioned as to who these people are and how were they employed in the war room.
After the publishing of the article by The News Minute which was also carried by other media outlets, many social media influencers jumped the bandwagon to spread canards against the Bengaluru South MP. An organized online campaign was initiated with a derogatory hashtag.
Actor Siddharth, who has of late been grabbing the limelight by attacking the BJP and the Modi Government went on to spew venom calling Tejasvi Surya as a person dangerous than 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab.
Mohammad Zubair, of the ‘fact-checking’ website Alt News started diverting the attention of the scam to attack Tejasvi Surya.
Since the episode, it has been reported that the MP’s team members are being targetted offline. Phone numbers of about 20 people including some of the volunteers are being made public. They have been receiving threatening calls from unknown numbers at a time when the office has been receiving distress calls for COVID related help.
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