Army clarifies after Twitterati trolls Modi’s visit to Leh hospital

The Indian Army has issued a clarification over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a hospital in Ladakh which was referred to as a ‘fake hospital’ and ‘photo op’ by internet trolls on Saturday (July 4).

Modi, during his surprise visit to Ladakh on Friday, had visited the General Hospital in Leh and met soldiers injured in the recent face-off with Chinese troops at Galwan valley.

The PM and the BJP had widely shared images of these on social media.

One of these images and a video showed Modi speaking and interacting with soldiers at the hospital facility.

PM Shri @narendramodi met soldiers injured in the Galwan Valley face-off on June 15 in a hospital in Leh. pic.twitter.com/e2u81aJEQ8

— BJP (@BJP4India) July 3, 2020

However, critics and trolls called out the visit as “photo-op”. Many pointed out that the facility lacked various hospital equipment such as drips stand, pulse oximeter, emergency crash cart, patient ID bands, etc.

Here's real Doctor telling you what's missing
No Patient's ID band
No pulse oximeter
No ECG leads
No monitor
No IV cannula / Saline ?
No emergency crash cart
Lot more
No Doctors explaining condition of patients too .
Ask proper Doctors before such photo ops .#MunnaBhaiMBBS pic.twitter.com/eHB9yDFmw0

— Dr Jwala Gurunath (@DrJwalaG) July 4, 2020

Some even pointed out a video projector and said it was a conference room that was converted for “photo-op”. Others even compared it to the Bollywood film Munna Bhai MBBS where the protagonist gangster Munna played by Sanjay Dutt, converts his den into a hospital with fake doctors and fake patients to convince his parents that he was a real doctor (he isn’t). Soon the hashtag #MunnaBhaiMBBS was trending.

Does this remind anyone of that scene from #munnabhaimbbs or is it just me?#modiinladakh #ModiInLaddakh #ModiInLeh #ModiInLehLadakh pic.twitter.com/gTLrwSW0Fn

— Paresh Nagrani (@paresh083) July 3, 2020

Congress leader Salman Nizami also hit out at Modi for doing “photo-op with jawans wounded in Chinese incursion”.

“Mr Modi was born to lie. First he says no one entered our territory. Then he does photo-op with jawans wounded in Chinese incursion. Of-course Godi media will do his damage control. But I guess the damage to our territory & sovereignty are enormous!,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mr Modi was born to lie. First he says no one entered our territory. Then he does photo-op with jawans wounded in Chinese incursion. Of-course Godi media will do his damage control. But I guess the damage to our territory & sovereignty are enormous! pic.twitter.com/0dZZT5a781

— Salman Nizami (@SalmanNizami_) July 3, 2020

However, the Army put out a statement clarifying that the ward Modi visited was indeed part of the Leh General Hospital where the conference room had been converted to a makeshift ward to suit the COVID pandemic requirements.

“The COVID-19 protocol had necessitated some wards of the General Hospital to be converted into isolation facilities. Hence, this hall which otherwise was normally used as a Training Audio Video Hall was converted into a ward ever since the hospital was also designated as COVID treatment hospital,” the Army said.

“The injured braves have been kept there since their arrival from Galwan to ensure quarantine from COVID areas,” it said.

They also pointed to video and photos of Army chief General MM Naravane’s recent visit to the same conference room/ward on June 23 to underline the fact.