Indore water tragedy: Rahul Gandhi arrives to meet victims

As grief and anger continue to simmer in Indore’s Bhagirathpura locality following a deadly outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea linked to contaminated drinking water, Congress MP and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi arrived in the city on Saturday to meet the affected families and patients battling for recovery.

Rahul Gandhi was received at Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport by a battery of senior Congress leaders, including Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari, leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Umang Singhar, former chief minister and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh, and former minister Sajjan Singh Verma. After holding a brief interaction with party leaders and workers at the airport, Rahul Gandhi proceeded to Bombay Hospital, where nearly a dozen victims of the outbreak are currently undergoing treatment.

“Rahul Gandhi will visit the hospital and then meet the families of those who have lost their loved ones. He wants to express his condolences and stand with the people during this tragedy,” Jitu Patwari said, underlining the party’s attempt to project solidarity with the victims.

The outbreak, which has claimed lives and left dozens ill, has sparked a sharp political confrontation in the state. While Rahul Gandhi focused on meeting patients and bereaved families, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav chose the day to visit another site heavy with historical tragedy — the Union Carbide factory premises linked to the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster.

During his visit, Yadav announced that his government had shifted and disposed of 337 metric tonnes of toxic waste from the long-abandoned site, projecting it as a decisive step toward environmental closure.

However, the chief minister also launched a pointed political attack on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Reiterating earlier allegations, Yadav said the Bhopal gas tragedy, which claimed thousands of lives, occurred during the Congress regime. He accused Congress leaders of indulging in “politics over deaths” in the wake of the Indore water contamination crisis.

A day earlier, while addressing a public event in Narmadapuram district, Yadav had invoked the 1984 tragedy to sharpen his criticism. “Thousands of people died in the Bhopal gas tragedy during the Congress government,” he said, alleging that the then chief minister Arjun Singh facilitated the departure of Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson under instructions from former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

As Indore mourns its dead and seeks answers over civic lapses, the tragedy has become the latest flashpoint in a deepening political duel — one where compassion, accountability and historical memory are being fiercely contested on the public stage.

Residents of Bhagirathpura allege that the toll from last month’s vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak has climbed to 24, sharply contradicting the state government’s official figure of seven deaths, which includes a five-month-old infant, as stated in a status report submitted to the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Adding to the uncertainty, a ‘death audit’ conducted by a committee at the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College has found that the deaths of at least 15 people in the locality could be linked, directly or indirectly, to the outbreak.

The administration has announced compensation of ₹2 lakh each to the families of 21 people who died after the outbreak began. Officials maintain that while several deaths were caused by pre-existing illnesses or other factors, financial assistance was extended to all affected families on humanitarian grounds.

With PTI/IANS inputs