BJP, Cong spar over syrup related deaths in Uzbekistan, Gambia

The alleged role of Indian pharma companies in the deaths of children abroad led to a verbal tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Thursday.

While the opposition party asked the government to stop boasting about India being a pharmacy to the world and take strictest action, the ruling party accused it of deriding India in its "hate" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has initiated a probe in connection with the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan allegedly linked to a cough syrup manufactured by an Indian firm, official sources said on Thursday.

Before that, were reports linking the deaths of children in Gambia to India-made cough syrups. The Drugs Controller General of India had claimed the WHO drew a premature link.

"Made in India cough syrups seem to be deadly. First it was the deaths of 70 kids in Gambia & now it is that of 18 children in Uzbekistan. Modi Sarkar must stop boasting about India being a pharmacy to the world & take strictest action," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter.

The BJP hit back with its IT department in-charge Amit Malviya replying, "The death of children in Gambia had nothing to do with the consumption of cough syrup made in India. That has been clarified by the Gambian authorities and DCGI, both. But blinded in its hate for Modi, Congress continues to deride India and its entrepreneurial spirit. Shameful."

The DCGI said Gambia has informed, according to media, that there has been no direct causal relation established yet between cough syrup consumption and the deaths, and that certain children who had died had not consumed the syrup in question.

The health ministry of Uzbekistan has claimed that the 18 children had consumed cough syrup, 'Doc-1 Max', manufactured by Noida-based Marion Biotech.