The Tuesday Interview | ‘I was starved and tortured, but I keep fighting. Somebody has to’

When 70 infants died from lack of oxygen supply in Gorakhpur in 2017, the UP government made Dr Kafeel Khan the scapegoat

When the Gorakhpur tragedy happened in August 2017, in which some 70 infants died due to lack of oxygen supply, and the UP government could not hide its failures in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s constituency, it needed a scapegoat, and it found one in Dr Kafeel Khan. When the court acquitted him of all charges in that case in September 2019, in perhaps the most telling instance of what it means to bear a Muslim name in today’s Uttar Pradesh and India, Khan was arrested again in another case related to the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act under the draconian National Security Act, and subjected to torture. A year later, the Allahabad High Court dropped all charges under NSA against Dr Khan and ordered him released. In these years, his family has been ostracised, attacked violently, and he himself has been terminated from service and he now lives in Jaipur the life of “a refugee in my own country,” and yet continues to serve people as part of the ‘Doctors on Roads’. At the Bengaluru Literature Festival last weekend, Khan spoke to DH’s Shree D N about his book which “is not about my story, it’s about the 80 children who died and whose parents are still waiting for justice,” and more. Excerpts:

It’s interesting that you have a Karnataka connection. Tell us a bit about it.

Karnataka is my second home. I came to Manipal in 2000 and was there until 2012. I spent the best 12 years of my youth there, studying MBBS and MD and working as an assistant professor at KMC, Manipal.

When you compare your experience in Karnataka with that of UP, what differences do you see in terms of healthcare?

In Manipal, one had to cross three doors and only then could enter the ICU, wearing shoe covers, caps, gloves, etc. There was no such thing at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur. It was a cultural shock for me when I moved there. Nobody was using any protective equipment. They used to eat inside the ICU; there were flies and mosquitoes. Dogs used to come and sleep under NICU beds. It was a totally different world from what I was used to in Manipal.

I believe that primary health centres are the backbone of the healthcare system. In South India, taluk hospitals are better. In UP, it works differently, with not enough doctors and infrastructure. In 2017, BRD Medical College was the only medical college in an area of around 100 square kilometres. We used to cater to 20 million people, because the primary healthcare system was not working and there was so much workload. We had a 200-bed hospital in paediatrics, and most of the time there were more than 400 patients. It was overcrowded and overburdened; doctors were exhausted. You can’t compare Karnataka and UP.

Have things improved now in UP?

I’d say it’s better now in terms of infrastructure. New buildings have come up. New AIIMS have come up. The shortage of doctors and nurses still exists.

Did the Gorakhpur tragedy trigger any improvement efforts?

I would say, yes. BRD Medical College used to receive Rs 7 crore per year. It now receives more than Rs 50 crore. Now, the bed strength has been increased to 1,500. Things have improved.

Why is there a difference between North and South India in terms of healthcare?

Health is a state subject. South India is a lot better than North India. For example, infant mortality in Kerala is 6, whereas it is 40 in UP. In the North, there is not enough political will. People are ignorant. Nobody cares. Poor people die.

What exactly happened in the Gorakhpur tragedy? What caused it?

It was corruption throughout the whole healthcare system. The medical college was just a part of it. Money flows from Lucknow to the health minister’s office. The supplier who was supplying oxygen to BRD Medical College couldn’t get his payment because money was not coming from Lucknow. There are allegations that they wanted a 10 per cent commission to clear the dues, but the supplier didn’t pay it and they didn’t clear the dues. I had just joined in 2016. The tragedy took place in 2017. It’s not a doctor’s responsibility to procure or maintain oxygen, hospital administration should do it. In my 12 years at Manipal, I never had to know where oxygen came from. I did not realise that something like this could happen. Oxygen is a vital, life-saving, emergency essential whose supply cannot be cut. There were 316 paediatric patients in the hospital. We tried to arrange oxygen, but that was not enough. We needed 250 cylinders in a day. Liquid oxygen supply from Rajasthan took 72 hours to reach Gorakhpur.

The government blamed encephalitis for the tragedy, but encephalitis only attacks children older than six months, not new-borns. Finally, the government could not bury the issue because the media was there. When they reached Gorakhpur, along with the oxygen shortage story, they dug out every other detail -- shortage of beds, medicine, doctors, and facilities, etc. The government needed a scapegoat, so they found me.

Read | Kafeel Khan pens his version of Gorakhpur's hospital tragedy

How was your life in prison?

It was horrible. I have spent more than 500 days behind bars in five years. I spent eight months in jail after the Gorakhpur tragedy. I was put in a hall meant for 60 people as per guidelines, but there were more than 170 people in it. We had 2 feet by 6 feet of sleeping space. We had one toilet. The food was horrible: Watery dal, rice, uncooked chapathi, no meat. Meeting the family was a problem. Meanwhile, an ex-mantriji in the same jail had his own full hall, with a TV and other amenities. He even got home-cooked food. If you have money, prison life is easy. Various services were available for fees inside the jail.

When I was studying, our paediatrics teachers would tell us, “You will learn the milestones better when you become a parent.” My daughter was nine months old when they arrested me. When I came out of jail, she was about 1.5 years old. She would not recognise me as her father. My son was seven months old when they arrested me a second time during the CAA-NRC protests. When I was released, he was 1.5 years old. He thought my brother was his father. This was the most painful part of my prison life, those times will not come back.

They (police) did not touch me in the Gorakhpur tragedy case, but during the CAA-NRC arrest in Mumbai, they tortured me during the journey to Aligarh. For 4-5 days, they did not give me food. Not even water. They took me to different buildings, stripped me naked, and beat me with rods, belts, etc. My skin peeled off, and I couldn’t sleep. But my hunger overtook this pain. I used to hallucinate and see water and food in the air. I couldn’t urinate. Lockdown worsened the issues as communication with the outside world was cut off.

What do you do these days?

We have a group of about 55 doctors called ‘Doctors on Roads’. We go to calamity-affected places to serve people. During Covid, we spent 100 days on the roads helping people. I do not have my own practice. I was suspended for four years and then my service was terminated. I have gone to court questioning this, and the case is still on. The court has said I am innocent. There is not a single piece of evidence of medical negligence or corruption against me. In such a case, how can they terminate me? I am fighting; I will get my job back. I want it back because the authoritarian powers should not do to anyone else what they did to me. Nobody else should suffer.

It’s easy to find a job elsewhere and go...

Yes. I can join any other college or hospital; there is no restriction by the Medical Council of India. But I want my job back. I am unable to travel abroad unless I obtain permission from the court. But then (if I go away), who will fight the fight? Somebody has to speak up. Everybody can’t remain silent spectators. Somebody has to speak up against the atrocities, the injustice.

Is it difficult to take up such a fight being a Kafeel Khan?

I believe Yogi Adityanath chose me not because I’m Kafeel Khan. He wanted a scapegoat. Even if it were Kapil Mishra or Kapil Kumar, he would have done the same. The only thing is that when it’s Khan, it’s easy to sell stories. That’s what the media does. I spoke about the unity and integrity of India at Aligarh Muslim University in the context of CAA and NRC. They called it ‘hate speech’. Fighting is not easy. The real victim is my family. I’m a refugee in my own country. I live in Jaipur due to security reasons after my brother was shot. I had to leave Gorakhpur, but my mother still lives there.

I still feel lucky. I’m still alive. I’m a doctor, and I know if I don’t drink water for 4-5 days, my kidneys can fail. Still, I survived. They have beaten me; they could have killed me. Even after slapping the NSA and branding me a terrorist, the court came to my rescue. Justice may have been delayed, but there are thousands languishing behind bars, and nobody cares. Thousands have died. Nobody knows their stories. I feel lucky that my story has reached people.

Read | The difficulty of being Kafeel Khan

How easy or difficult is it to speak truth to power?

It is difficult. But somebody has to speak up. Somebody has to sacrifice their life to awaken the sleeping public. Who will tell the stories of these 80 kids who died, or of the thousands who died in the Covid tsunami?

What’s the motivation for continuing to do it?

The motivation to keep doing it is people’s love. I get a lot of love and affection from the public wherever I go. I, being a doctor belonging to an upper-middle-class family who did good work, could be put behind bars even though I was innocent, what would happen to those who don’t have a voice? For their sake, I think one must speak up. And my family supports me. My wife, also a doctor, quit her practice and is taking care of the kids, but she never told me to give up the fight. My mother fought for me in all courts, including the Supreme Court.

How were you able to get your tell-all book published?

During Covid, I saw that everybody, whether elite or poor, struggled for beds, medicines, and oxygen. At that time, I thought I should write about what happened in Gorakhpur. I dedicated it to those 80 parents who did not get justice. The process of publishing was tough. No Indian publisher was willing to publish it. The English version is published by Pan McMillan, a UK-based publisher. They shut down their office for seven days fearing a backlash after this book was published. More than 10,000 copies have been sold. When the Hindi translation of this book was released, the publisher received a call from the Chief Minister’s Office. They were more worried about the book in Hindi because that would reach the masses directly. The publisher recalled all the copies.

There was much fake news published about you. How has the mainstream media treated you generally?

Fake news can be used to distort anything. It has become part of the political game. The media has become helpless. The whole world knows that it’s not a doctor’s responsibility to procure oxygen, but they still said it was. Big media houses, not local newspapers, said I stole oxygen and took it to my private clinic. People believed it. How can you steal liquid oxygen? Fake news is dangerous; it endangers democracy by creating false narratives.

The media made me a big hero for the first two days -- they called me the saviour who got oxygen for the children. Then I was made a villain. The media made me a hero, the media made me a villain. Then, after eight months, the media only campaigned for my release. Digital media and young journalists have written a lot about my story. There are good people who keep the spirit of good journalism alive.

What do you want to do through your ‘Health for All’ campaign?

‘Health for All’ is an all-India campaign. We are demanding that health expenditures increase to at least 5 per cent of the GDP. The whole world is spending about 7-8 per cent of GDP, but India spends only 1.2 per cent of its GDP on public health. We have given a proposal to the health minister. For a population of 1.4 billion, we are spending only Rs 80,000 crore on health. 63 million people go below the poverty line due to unplanned health expenditures every year. The private health sector is flourishing. The Constitution says health is a right, and the Supreme Court agreed with it. But now the whole health sector is being privatised.

We want to strengthen primary health centres because they are the first responders in any public health emergency. Every district should have a medical, pharmacy, and nursing college. The late Arun Jaitley, when he was finance minister, had announced 1.5 lakh wellness centres. The number of doctors should also be increased. WHO says there should be one doctor for every 1,000 people. But in India, Delhi has one doctor for 300 people; in Jharkhand, the ratio is 1:8,000, and in rural UP and Bihar, it is 1:51,000. So, strengthening primary health centres and increasing health infrastructure and manpower are our demands. We also demand that all health facilities be free for everyone, without any caste, gender, or disability bias. We are working with both state and central governments. Rajasthan and Jharkhand are planning to table bills on the right to healthcare.