Rs 700-cr Delhi medical ‘scam’ ignored by primetime TV

A scam involving alleged siphoning of approximately Rs 700 crore, three arrests, and roughly a dozen government officials under investigation went entirely unmentioned on primetime television on Monday, even as anchors spent their segments on the Ayodhya Ram Mandir donation theft case, a viral video implicating a Tamil Nadu minister in a drugs controversy, and updates on the Ketan Agarwal murder case.

The Delhi medical procurement scam centres on the Central Procurement Agency (CPA), under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) of the Delhi government, which allegedly inflated bills for medical equipment and supplies by several times their market value, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Portable X-ray machines were billed at Rs 33 lakh against a market price of roughly Rs 10 lakh, hospital linen at Rs 450 a piece against a real cost of Rs 150, and 50 lakh ORS sachets at Rs 15 each versus a market rate of about Rs 2.5, the report said.

Three arrests have been made so far, including former DGHS Director Dr Vatsala Aggarwal, former Deputy Controller of Accounts Neeraj Chopra, and former CPA Head of Office Dr Vinod Kumar Ranga, who is in judicial custody. Around 10 more officials are reportedly under the Anti-Corruption Branch’s scanner.

None of this was mentioned in the major English- and Hindi-language primetime debates on Monday. Instead, the Ram Mandir donation theft case dominated primetime slots helmed by anchors including Arnab Goswami (Republic TV), Sudhir Chaudhary (DD News), Anjana Om Kashyap (Aaj Tak), Rubika Liyaquat (Times Now Navbharat), Amish Devgan (News18 India), Navika Kumar (Times Now), Padmaja Joshi (NDTV), Sucherita Kukreti (NDTV India), and Aman Chopra (News18 India) – with discussions ranging from the Faizabad Bar Association’s refusal to represent the accused, to Champat Rai’s role and testimony and the political slugfest over the case in UP.

A separate controversy over a viral video allegedly showing a Tamil Nadu minister consuming drugs also found space on Arnab Goswami’s show, alongside the Ketan Agarwal murder case, which Sudhir Chaudhary and Anjana Om Kashyap both returned to. 

Rahul Shivshankar (News18) and Sudhir Chaudhary also took up PM Modi’s recent visit to Seychelles, including questions raised by Opposition leaders over why the PM visited “such a small nation”, an explanation of Seychelles’ role in India’s MAHASAGAR vision, and an award conferred on Modi by the Seychelles government during the trip.

While some of these channels may have flagged the scam in their regular news bulletins, its complete absence from primetime debate fits a familiar pattern.

Earlier this month, primetime television similarly ignored an Indian Express investigation into Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's land dealings, even as coordinated social media activity sought to drown out the story online. 

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