Ostrich-like attitude of Centre on oxygen situation

How can the government be so irresponsible to claim no death due to lack of oxygen? Ironically, there was no shortage on one hand, and Prime Minister was busy managing oxygen supply by cutting the quota of steel companies. Oxygen plants were installed overnight. Were the cryogenic tankers, cylinders from foreign nations sent just as gift for museum?

The irrelevant remarks passed by central government would hurt each one, whose near and dear ones are no more. Who can forget floating dead bodies in river Ganga, hospital beds in shortages, oxygen supply deficiency, railways to Airforce lending their hand, Prayagraj Sangam riverside piles of corpse? If there was no shortage of oxygen, why did the Prime Minister take so much pain to manage oxygen supply? The images of kilometres-long queue for Remdesivir and oxygen will never get lost from our eyes. The government can draw a curtain on the number of deaths but can never ever hide the pain and emotions of the bereaved families.

Aman Jaiswal, New Delhi

Irresponsible assertion

What the central government said on Covid deaths due to lack of oxygen is truly much unfortunate. The government on the floor of house in Rajya Sabha on July 20 said that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were reported by the states and UTs. The claim is, no doubt, a reflection of irresponsibility. The opposition parties rightly said that it was not due to lack of oxygen but because of mismanagement. It seems that the remark was intended to deflect the attention from the Pegasus spyware controversy as the opposition parties were up in arms in the houses against the government over the spying of stalwart politicians and journalists etc.

Muaz Shiakh, Mumbai

Height of absurdity

It's the height of absurdity for the central government to place statement on the floor of House that no deaths occurred in India due to scarce oxygen supply during the Covid second wave. The world has seen the pathetic visuals of patients and their relatives running pillar to post to grab a full oxygen cylinder for emergency use. The government has to move tanks by air. The deaths due to oxygen supply failure were being reported often from all sides of the country. It's unfair now for the government to deny the oxygen failure as the major contributor of death count. At least it could have made sense had the government said that as the Covid death count is not yet categorised, the numbers are not yet ready.

Dr DVG Sankararao, Vizianagaram

A cruel joke on dead people

Union health minister of state Bharti Praveen Pawar's statement that no death due to lack of oxygen was specifically reported by states and UTS is nothing but a cruel joke on the people of India who lost their near and dear ones. There is nothing bigger lie than saying no deaths were there due to oxygen, when whole country knows it. What about media which wrote that in AP eleven people died, that in Delhi hundreds died and in Goa 80 died gasping for oxygen? Don't we forget people who were begging for oxygen and dying on roads? Union government must go and ask those who lost their dear ones due to lack of oxygen and hospital support.

Zeeshaan, Kazipet.

No O2 shortage deaths?

We were reminded of the Tamil saying of 'Muzhu pusanikkaiye chottil maraithal pole' – it is like trying to conceal a full pumpkin in rice on a plate – when the Union government denied Covid-19 deaths due to lack of medical oxygen during the second wave of the pandemic. Anyone who kept his eyes open would bear witness to the frantic attempts of the family members and friends of Covid-19 patients for oxygen in a desperate bid to save their loved ones. We saw with our own eyes how people were driven from pillar to post. The disturbing visuals of those days must be shown to death deniers. The only plausible explanation for the government's denial of deaths due to O2 shortage is its preoccupation with protecting its image, if need be, by being economical with truth.

G David Milton, Maruthancode (TN)