“She called me and accepted the video was about her and said she made a mistake under stress. I told her I am completely shocked. You are the head, you have to show the way to people. You have betrayed the Hippocratic oath, you have committed to health of your patients, to treating all patients equally,” former Member of Parliament from Kanpur, and CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali did not mince her words, when Dr Aarti Lalchandani called her today. Ms Ali told SabrangIndia, that “She is shocked” and that the doctor’s words are “unforgivable”.
“She has broken the oath she took while becoming a doctor,” said Ms. Ali.
While Dr Lalchandani perhaps called the well known activist and political leader in panic after the massive outrage her hate video has generated once again, and probably hoped to get advice on how to diffuse the heat by admitting to her hate-speech. However, Ms Ali has demanded a probe into the video by the district administration and said the Dr Lalchandani should be “immediately removed” from her post and and an FIR be lodged against her.
“Objectionable video with extremely communal raving by principal GSVM medical College kanpur। Have demanded authentication by authorities after her removal। If authenticated she must be dismissed and prosecuted.
Objectionable video with extremely communal raving by principal GSVM medical College kanpur। Have demanded authentication by authorities after her removal। If authenticated she must be dismissed and prosecuted pic.twitter.com/dZX0ljdc1G
— Subhashini Ali (@SubhashiniAli) May 31, 2020
“This is not just anybody। This is the principal of a foremost medical college। She must be prosecuted। Normalising the unacceptable is NOT a good idea
We demand the removal of the principal GSVM medical college। If video is genuine she must be dismissed and prosecuted pic.twitter.com/ziLm6z2Dyw
— Subhashini Ali (@SubhashiniAli) May 31, 2020
In the video clip, Dr Lalchandani sounds confident when sharing her ideology, and knows her words reach those who matter in the Uttar Pradesh government. She probably is also confident that the Uttar Pradesh government will not take any action against her. What else can explain the fact that Dr. Aarti Lalchandani, the principal and dean of Kanpur’s Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, continues to hold her powerful position, and continues to practice medicine, even though she has been called out more than once for her anti-Muslim rants during Covid19 pandemic. In April she had alleged that members of the Tabhlighi Jamaat who were admitted for Covid 19 isolation and treatment had been ‘misbehaving with medical staff. She had gone on to news channels and repeated her allegations. These volatile, and dangerous allegations that could have set off major communal backslash.
“Tablighi Jamaat COVID-19 patients spitting on floor, troubling health care staff: Dr Aarti Lalchandani, Principal, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, Kanpur”
Tablighi Jamaat COVID-19 patients spitting on floor, troubling health care staff: Dr Aarti Lalchandani, Principal, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, Kanpur pic.twitter.com/em6OqpaMzi
— India TV (@indiatvnews) April 4, 2020
Perhaps it was around the same time, that she was filmed secretly by a local journalist, as she allegedly went on to talk hatefully against Tabhlighi Jamaat members and the Muslim community.
Over the weekend, the five-minute video clip has gone viral. Dr Lalchandani is seen and heard calling Tablighi Jamaat members ‘terrorists’. The video that appears to have been secretly shot from a hidden camera placed on the table by a reporter from a local news channel, shows Lalchandani in a chatty mode, without a mask, alleging that the UP chief minister, Yogi Adityanath was indulging “in appeasement” of Muslims. “I hope you all are not recording this,” she asks the men sitting in her office, “no, no,” they answer in chorus. No one reacts to her ‘appeasement’ allegation on the Chief Minister, they egg her on to talk more. “Getting them [Tabhlighi’s] admitted [to hospital] is appeasement,” she continues, “they should be in jail, but you are bring them here for treatment, infecting others, feeding them, waiting medicines, wasting manpower.”
“More than anything that [PPE] kits are being wasted. They should be beaten with sticks, and put in jail,” she suggests ‘solitary confinement’ was the best for TJ members, or they could be put in a ‘dungeon in the forest’. She wants the UP government to pay heed, “Yogiji should order that no state resources will be used for Jamaatis, I would chase them away in two minutes.” She also referred to an unclear incident over which she claims to have taken on the UP authorities, “I had created a ruckus on 22nd night, then got an ambulance in the morning. I fought with the CMO, they said 60 ambulances were allotted to ‘them’. Alloted to pander to them.” She is referring to TJ members and laments that the administration will only act if the UP CM’s Office orders it, “What can I make the DM understand? The DM will do what the CMO says. They are busy using ambulances to pander to these 22 people. I said forget all these pandering, take these 22 people and leave them in the jungle.”
She sounds upset and frustrated at being ignored by the administration, “They suppressed me and asked me how can I say such things. Even now I cannot say this openly, you can say it, you are the media, you can get someone to say this is appeasement at the cost of state money. These [Muslims] people are just 30 crore out of 100 crore. They are spreading it. There will be a financial emergency soon because of ‘them’.”
She reminds her audience that Muslims are, “terrorists and we are giving them VIP treatment, giving them food and drink, finishing our food, exhausting our resources, making our doctors sick for them, paying over a lakh for hotel bills, doctors are going in quarantine. We had one corona positive patient, a very decent NRI, who left when cured.
“On them all our resources are being used. We have used 100 [PPE] kits. We get them at subsidised rates of 500-700 rupees, but each kit costs the government 2,500. Just think, 100 kits daily for them. If they [Tablighis/Muslims] were not there we would not need any kits.”
She obviously knew she was talking to ‘trusted’ journalists, and hoped the volatile conversation was private and confidential, “Don’t leak this, I am thinking of talking to the health minister, Dr Harshvardhan”.
She was confident of her access to the union health minister as both of them are alumni of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, where she is now posted as principal. The Hindu reports that Aarti Lalchandani has admitted that she made the comments, and that the video was 70 days old. She said she was ‘venting’ as the Covid 19 pandemic gained speed in India. It was in those weeks that Tabhligis, and in fact the entire Muslim community was being blamed and tagged as ‘super spreaders’ by the Right Wing.
Prof. Arati Lal Chandani, according to information available online, “did her MBBS in 1978 and MD (Medicine) in 1983 from G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur. She did her super speciality in DM Cardiology from world renowned LPS Institute of Cardiology, Kanpur. She joined as lecturer in her own alma mater and got promoted as Director & Head at KPS Institute of Medicine at G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur.”
In the video, she has asked that UP CM Adityanath “issue an order stating that no state resources should be used on treatment of Jamaat members.” According to The Hindu report, when contacted Dr Lalchandani first said the video was “morphed”, and that she did not refer to any community or target Muslims. But in the same breath she also admitted that she made the comments as a vent during the initial days of the COVID-19 crisis in Kanpur.
The news report quotes her as saying, “I said it in anger and frustration. I didn’t issue any statement. I said this but in that circumstance…” She has also threatened to “file an FIR against the reporter who leaked a video of the conversation for “blackmail” and carrying out a “sting”, and alleged the local Hindi reporter had “demanded tenders and outsourcing contacts from her,” the Hindu report quotes her. She also alleged that the reporter who recorded the video where she is heard using communally derogatory words has “disturbed the equilibrium of society and is trying to instigate Muslims. Maybe he is provoking riots.”
The college she studied at, and now is the principal of, is listed as a “a Government run medical college… in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1956, the college is named after Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, a freedom fighter and journalist from Kanpur.”
Twitter user Faizul Hasan says he has already filed an e-complain against her. “Complaint against Dr #ArtiLalchandani to the medical council of India. #ArrestAratiLalchandani
Tablighi Jamaat COVID-19 patients spitting on floor, troubling health care staff: Dr Aarti Lalchandani, Principal, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, Kanpur pic.twitter.com/em6OqpaMzi
— India TV (@indiatvnews) April 4, 2020
According to a senior lawyer who spoke to SabrangIndia on condition of anonymity, an FIR must be filed ASAP before any action is taken. “It is now rare for the court to take a suo motu cognisance. The general public is either lazy, or too scared to approach the court too.Hence an FIR is important,” he said Dr Lalchandanis words were indeed “hate speech”, which is a punishable offence under the Indian Penal Court. “Now imagine what would have happened if a Muslim doctor had said something similar about any other religion,” said the lawyer.