Indian state ‘cracks down’ on hospitals flagging oxygen shortage

BJP government in Uttar Pradesh accused of ordering crackdown on people and hospitals reporting shortages, say reports.

The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India’s most populous Uttar Pradesh state has ordered a crackdown on individuals and hospitals reporting a shortage of medical oxygen or beds, according to Indian media reports. Over the weekend, the northern state’s saffron-clad Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu monk known for his hate speech, threatened to invoke the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and the Gangster Act against anyone trying to spread fear and panic during the pandemic, local reports said. He also said the property of “anti-social elements” spreading “rumours and propaganda on social media” should be seized – a measure earlier used by the state against criminals, but now becoming a regular threat under Adityanath’s government.