BHUBANESWAR: The bereaved had no presence in the premier Capital Hospital. It, perhaps, had the most crowded scene in its history ever following the SUM hospital fire tragedy.
Since most of the private run hospitals save AMRI refused to entertain the causalities of the SUM Hospital, the only government hospital had to bear the brunt.
Crowded as it was not for the mourners or the bereaved, it was full of curious unlookers who assembled for no business of theirs. TV channels personnel queered the pitch for inconsequent bites and the petty political wannabes made matters worse with their presence in the hospital. It was after all a show time
for them - a time to cash in on their images at the cost of the dead. And none seemed to be sorry for the dead, 15 in number.
The periodic footfalls of politicians of all hues, including Chief Minister Naveen Patnik distracted the attention of the handful of doctors utterly ill equipped to handle a tragedy of this sort. The hospital is never known for handling burn injuries or cases related to asphyxia as patients dead or alive were rushed there.
As bodies received dead were consigned to an ill organised storage for the post mortem to be conducted tomorrow, the bystanders and politicians made the most of the tragedy as if it was some another event where celebration not mourning took the stage.
The irony was the Capital Hospital authorities were clueless in a siuation like this who to deal with - the victims, the politicians or the ever curious electonic media persons.
After all, the political masters proved to be far more important for them than the victims of the tragedy.
Had the ruling party bigwigs let the hospital authorities do their job instead of focussing on their arrivals, the lot who were rushed in for life saving could have a slightly better attention of the doctors.