In a hearing today related to various issues regarding Covid-19 testing, availability of Remdesivir, Oxygen, etc. in Maharashtra, the division bench of the Bombay High Court referred to the supreme sacrifice of Narayan Dabhadkar, the 85-year old RSS man who gave up his hospital bed for a younger COVID-19 patient.
“People of the nation are saluting an octogenarian so that a middle-aged man could get his bed,” said Bombay HC Chief Justice Dipankar Datta.
“What about this reflection on your (Maha Gov) healthcare system? Had we woken up earlier, both could have lived. Had we been a bit more vigilant we could have avoided this situation. It is our collective failure that has got us here,” added the Chief Justice, lamenting the sacrifice of Narayan Dabhadkar, calling it a reflection on Maharashtra’s healthcare system.
Nagpur based Narayan Dabhadkar, the octogenarian Swayamsevak, had voluntarily given up his hospital bed for a younger patient on 22nd April as Maharashtra struggles to give every Covid patient required healthcare. Narayan Kaka, as he was called affably, felt that he had ‘lived long enough’ while the other patient had little children to take care of. He died 3 days later.
However, his memory was later smeared by a bogus fact-check from the publication Loksatta claiming that the reports of the sacrifice as fake. However, it has now quietly edited its report to include a statement by Anil Sambre, the Vidarbha region campaign chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
“The incident involving our senior RSS volunteer Narayanrao Dabhadkar is true. He begged the hospital to discharge him, give his bed to others, and be allowed to go home. However, Dabhadkar is being deliberately misrepresented on social media by some people,” the statement reads
