The death of their only son due to roads being blocked for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's convoy in Kanpur on July 3 has provoked the parents to make a humble appeal to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Seriously injured and profusely bleeding sevenyear old Aman was being rushed to Kanpur's Regency Hospital by his parents, when a roadblock on account of the PM's visit disallowed them quick access to the nearby hospital.
Holding the bleeding child in their hands, the parents make fervent appeals to the cops and administrative officials on duty, who refused to use their discretion in order to save his life. Wading through crowded bylanes, when they eventually reached the hospital, Aman had breathed his last. He was declared "brought dead".
The hapless parents were told "perhaps Aman's life could have been saved if you had reached the hospital 10 minutes earlier." Aman's father Tahadud Hussain Khan and mother Usha on Tuesday shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi asking her to use her to prevent such tragedies in future.
"We have sought to draw Sonia Gandhi's attention to the plight of common citizens during such VVIP visits," Aman's mother Usha Sharma Khan, a junior employee in the Kanpur based Ordnance factory, said.
"It is quite understandable that restrictions have to be in place on account of the PM's high security, but shouldn't there be some provision to carry a sick or dying human being to the hospital; Someone must take a call on that", Usha told reporters during her brief visit to Lucknow on Friday.
"We had to spend nearly 45 extra minutes on the roads while negotiating a crowded alternative route to the hospital. The doctors said that Aman's life could have been saved had he reached the hospital just ten minutes earlier," she said.
An uncontrollably sobbing Swati, the victim's 16 year-old sister, could not get over the sight of her dying brother who was lying in her lap. "I cannot forget how my poor brother went on bleeding and we could not reach him to the hospital simply because the policemen would not allow us to cross over to the other side of the road." She went on to add, "even though we know we cannot get our Aman back, our only appeal to Sonia Gandhi is to evolve some mechanism to ensure that another child does not lose his life under similar circumstances in future."