Thread by @seekingsrishti

Yogi Aadityanath, UP's CM yesterday claimed - "Before 2017 was everyone able to get ration? Only those who used to say 'Abba Jaan' were digesting the ration." He LIED from the stage. My reporting from UP proves otherwise. A thread. Please stay with me.

Last year 5-year-old Sonia Kumari died in Agra, a district in Uttar Pradesh. Sonia born to 40-year-old Sheela and 50-year-old Pappu had reportedly gone without ration for 15 days before she died. Pertinent to mention that they are Hindus.

The neighbours who came to grieve with the family on the day of Sonia's death brought them cheap Parle G glucose biscuits, the only thing they ate in days. I should mention that this happened in 2020, four years after Yogi took oath as CM.

This is not the only Hindu family which suffered from severe hunger. When I visited Bojha Ram’s house, a man in his 70s, I saw him eating leftover chapati with sugar dissolved in water. His 60-year-old wife, Mala, the only breadwinner, was out looking for work.

A disabled mother of four, Baby Kumari, had not eaten anything for three days. She cooked some food she borrowed from the neighbours for the children but went without eating herself, she told me.

Her statement on a video is in this story - longform.storiesasia.org/a-death-by-hun…

All these hunger stories are from 2020. In 2021 Guddi and her 5 children went hungry for 2 months in Aligarh of UP. The doctors who attended them said they were so weak that they could not walk.

ndtv.com/india-news/ali…

Recently I reported how 38-year-old widow Tabbasum Nisha was struggling because of hunger. Just see how trolls target her just because of religion. Many said she should be given contraceptives instead of ration cards. Others said it was a conspiracy to legalise Rohingyas.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence" and this violence is not communal. The story also mentions how there were many Hindu families who fear death from starvation.

aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/6/…

For instance, when I visited Rani Devi’s shanty, she had nothing to eat except frozen fat and salt. The widow is responsible for feeding her three grandchildren. Her 14-year-old grandson is a rickshaw puller and the sole earner in the family. He earns between $4-5 a day.

Like Rani Devi, 60, Nuzat Bano, 22, too was unable to apply for a ration card at all because of the complex requirements of eligibility, such as a proof of residence, electricity bills and other documents. This is her 4-year-old daughter.

The cases in this story are from Delhi. But the situation is pretty much the same everywhere. Hunger does not see religion before targeting an empty stomach.
aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/6/…