New Delhi: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Thursday wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding justice for Gorakhpur’s doctor Kafeel Khan.
“I expect that you will show sensitivity and work to bring justice to doctor Kafeel Khan,” Gandhi wrote in the letter.
Khan was arrested on 29 January for an alleged inflammatory speech made at Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests last December and has been in jail since then.
In the letter, Gandhi mentioned that Khan has worked “selflessly” in the service of people.
“Under difficult circumstances, doctor Kafeel has worked selflessly to serve people,” she wrote.
Khan was involved in multiple campaigns in Bihar last year, offering free medical care to patients after the state saw several encephalitis deaths.
Gandhi also wrote that Khan has already spent over 450 days in jail, in the past.
Khan was earlier arrested in August 2017 on corruption allegations in Gorakhpur’s BRD hospital’s encephalitis deaths case. He was released on bail in April 2018 and a departmental inquiry commissioned by the Adityanath government cleared him of the charges in September 2019.
Also read: Gorakhpur doctor Kafeel Khan’s detention under NSA extended by 3 months
Quotes lines by yogi Gorakhnath
Gandhi, in her letter, has also quoted lines by Hindu yogi Gorakhnath.
The letter explained the meaning of these lines — ‘one shouldn’t discriminate, one should always speak sweetly and if they see someone burning, they should rush to diffuse the fire’.
The Congress had last week launched a concerted campaign, demanding Khan’s release. The campaign includes signature drives, hunger strikes, social media campaigns and visits to dargahs.
“We have set up camps (across UP districts) and want to collect around 10,000 signatures from each district and submit them to the governor in the next few weeks,” Shahnawaz Alam, Congress’ UP minority cell chief, had told ThePrint.
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No one doubts Dr Khan’s credentials , or commitment, as a doctor….but being a great doctor, doesn’t take away from the fact that he was misinformed on the law that he was protesting against, and unapologetic about his inadequate understanding of the same. This, in and as of itself is certainly not grounds for incarceration, but trying to propound this misinformed view to a larger mass of people, most of who are easily influenced (students), is unbecoming of a medical doctor…..I’m sure once he realizes the folly, and makes amends, he will no longer need to remain under arrest. Free speech, doesn’t free you from the responsibilities of the consequences of that speech……
The important issue is his anti-national inflamatory speech.
How hard he worked as a doctor is totally irrelevant.
Thousands of doctors work hard. Thousands of nurses work hard.