At a joint press briefing held here with Congress Legislature Party leader in the Rajasthan Assembly, Tika Ram Jully, and the party’s legislature party leader in Madhya Pradesh, Umang Singhar, serious allegations were raised concerning child deaths linked to cough syrup in Madhya Pradesh.

Umang Singhar claimed that 16 children have died in Chhindwara, and that the local Congress MLA had repeatedly warned the government, but no action was taken. “When the matter escalated, the body of a girl child was exhumed from the grave and a postmortem was conducted. Children kept dying in the state, while the chief minister was reportedly roaming in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park,” Singhar alleged.

Singhar further criticized the Madhya Pradesh government’s response. “The deputy chief minister (Rajendra Shukla) says no death has occurred due to cough syrup and has continuously given a clean chit to the company that manufactures it. After all, what kind of an insensitive government is this? What is the link of the deputy chief minister with the medicine company?” he questioned.

Highlighting negligence, the Congress leader pointed out, “Tests are conducted even for minor illnesses, but no tests were ever conducted while children’s kidneys were failing in Madhya Pradesh.”

Singhar also accused the pharmaceutical company of deliberately choosing a tribal area like Parasia for its operations. “They knew that Dalits, tribals, and poor people live there, and their voices could be suppressed. If such companies are doing business in small districts in collaboration with the government, are ministers taking a share from these companies?” he asked.

He further alleged that both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have “puppet” chief ministers who cannot make decisions independently, with major decisions coming directly from Delhi. Referring to the 25,000 children in Parasia, he questioned whether the government had launched any campaign to identify those affected by the syrup. “The BJP government is offering only Rs 4 lakh as compensation to the families of the deceased. Is the price of a mother’s empty lap just Rs 4 lakh?” Singhar asked, raising concerns about the government’s humanity.

Demanding justice, Singhar called for a judicial inquiry into the deaths of the children and demanded that at least one member from each affected family be given a government job. “The families of the deceased children should receive compensation equal to the amount spent on their treatment. There should be no politics involved in this,” he said.

Speaking at the same briefing, Tika Ram Jully criticized the Prime Minister’s 25-year tenure in various positions, stating that “all this is happening under his regime” and that he “should apologise to the country” over the issue.

“In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, several children have died after consuming cough syrup, and many more are seriously ill. Despite this, the BJP government in Rajasthan refuses to accept that the children’s deaths were caused by the syrup,” Jully said.

He questioned the Rajasthan government’s decision to procure drug supplies from pharmaceutical companies that are “blacklisted and notorious.”

Following these tragic deaths, several states have intensified actions to halt the consumption and supply of Coldrif cough syrup. In Madhya Pradesh, 14 children’s deaths have been linked to this medicine, leading to the suspension of three officials and the transfer of the state drug controller.

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