It's an image that will haunt India for many days if not months.  For over a two and half hours, like Yama, the God of death, he carried the dead body of his son on a motorcycle to his native village located over 90 km away from here as the ambulance drivers of the Ruia Government Hospital in Tirupati, where the boy died undergoing treatment on Tuesday, did not allow the ambulance sent by his relatives to enter the hospital premises.

The 10-year-old boy Jeseva from Chitvel village under Rajampet Mandal in Andhra Pradesh's Annamaiah district was undergoing treatment at SVR Ruia Government General Hospital for some kidney-related ailments. However, he died while undergoing treatment at the hospital at around 11 pm on Monday night. His father Narasimha informed the matter to his relatives, who immediately sent an ambulance to the Ruia Government Hospital to take the body to his native village Chitwel in the Annamayya district.

However, the ambulance drivers at the Ruia Government Hospital, who have formed a syndicate, did not allow the ambulance engaged by the relatives of the deceased to enter the hospital premises. They sent away the ambulance forcibly and insisted that the man take the body of his son in their ambulance only by paying Rs 20,000. As the man was unable to pay the money to the ambulance drivers, in an unavoidable situation, he put the body on his shoulder and took it on a motorcycle as a pillion rider.

The incident of carrying the body of the boy on a motorcycle by his father sent shockwaves across the state and promoted the district administration to swing into action and order an inquiry into the entire incident. As a matter of fact, it's a commentary on the state of the healthcare services in Andhra, at least half a dozen cases of bodies being transported on bicycles, trolley rickshaws, and even wooden cots have been reported from remote areas in the past.  It fills us sense of disgust. We are going berserk as the report travels around the world. 

Private ambulance driver Nanda Kishore videographed the ambulance mafia preventing the entry of the other ambulance into the hospital premises to take the body of the boy which went viral and created a sensation. Heartbreaking indeed. But hang on just a minute. What about the people who were taking pictures of a bereaved human being holding the remains of someone he loved on his shoulders, maybe we can get off a first shot of him loading up the body and then help the guy? 

Were they not being operated by educated, intelligent newsmen and maybe women? No one thought to call the authorities. No one thought to flag down a passing vehicle. None of the media was offended when they bought this footage in case I am wrong and the person who shot it was putting it to the highest bidder.

Did we let ourselves down for the sake of a story and exploit loss because it would be a scoop a doop? It is a slap on the face of civil society that no one was moved by father Narasimha’s sight. How insensitive it is to ask a bereaved father to wait, his dead son by his side, for a van to turn up? What kind of an emerging global superpower reduces its citizens to this state? Where there is no dignity in death. Where lack of money means you are pushed by the might of a heartless system into hell.