An ambulance carrying a heart victim was held by the policemen waiting for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's convoy on an expressway to Kolkata on Wednesday, and was not allowed to go even when the patient's kin pleaded with folded hands.
Meherjan Begum, 50, was admitted in the hospital in a critical condition after a major delay in getting her there. Her family alleges that they begged and pleaded, but the police refused to let their ambulance pass the traffic.
When they said her condition was serious, a policeman checked her pulse and decided that she could wait till the chief minister had passed.
The West Bengal chief minister was scheduled to return from Digha in East Midnapore and police was not sure if she would fly back or come by road. But she eventually took a helicopter.
The ambulance was allowed to go only when senior officers finally arrived to check on the commotion.
According to reports, Meherjan lay gasping for breath for 20 minutes while her relative prayed she would cling on to life until they reached SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, a 20-minute drive away.
Terming the incident as an instance of VVIP racism in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said this showed the kind of misgovernance and lawlessness prevailing in the state.
"In West Bengal the message is very loud and clear that it is Mamata and Mamata alone. The civilians and the people of the state can suffer and they will have to suffer. And, therefore this unfortunate incident of VVIP racism happened," BJP leader Siddharthnath Singh told ANI.
"The incident just goes to show what kind of mis-governance, lawlessness and VVIP racism is happening in West Bengal," he added.
