The Congress on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government over the deaths of at least 18 people, including a six-month-old infant, allegedly due to contaminated drinking water in Indore, calling the tragedy a case of “criminal negligence” and demanding a Supreme Court–monitored independent inquiry.

Addressing the media at party headquarters, Congress leader and party spokesperson Pawan Khera said the incident had exposed the “ugly, brutal and utterly callous face” of the BJP government, accusing it of failing in its most basic duty of ensuring safe drinking water despite years of central and international funding.

“In Indore, 18 innocent lives have been senselessly lost due to gross negligence, incompetence and blatant apathy of the BJP government. Over 40,000 people have been affected, many of whom are still battling for their lives in ICUs,” Khera said in hius statement.

The incident has sparked outrage particularly because Indore has been ranked the “cleanest city” in the country for eight consecutive years under the Centre’s Swachh Survekshan survey. Opposition leaders have termed the tragedy a stark contradiction of official claims on urban sanitation and public health.

Khera alleged that instead of responding with urgency and empathy, the state government displayed arrogance. He criticised senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya for his remarks to journalists during the crisis.

“When families were mourning and waiting for compensation, a BJP minister told journalists ‘don’t ask fokat questions’ and used the word ‘ghanta.’ This is the BJP’s idea of governance—hubris over humanity,” Khera alleged.

The Congress also slammed the government’s decision to announce a compensation of Rs 2 lakh per victim, calling it “a grotesque calculation of human life”.

“Two lakh rupees is a contemptible sum that mocks the value of human life. Families are left to carry lifelong grief caused entirely by the BJP’s reckless arrogance and incompetence,” Khera said.

Placing the tragedy in a broader context, the Congress pointed to what it described as decades of systemic failure in urban water management in Madhya Pradesh. Khera recalled that in 2003 and 2008, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had extended loans worth over $270 million to the state for the Urban Water Supply and Environment Improvement Project covering cities including Indore. According to him, these funds were meant for rehabilitating pumping stations, laying sewage networks, installing water metering systems and constructing water treatment plants.

“Quarterly water quality testing was not conducted, monitoring reports were never prepared, and critical infrastructure projects were left incomplete or mismanaged,” Khera alleged, adding that Rs 100 crore released during the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for these purposes had been “squandered.”

He claimed that the contamination of drinking water with sewage, which allegedly led to the deaths, was a direct result of this failure. “This is not mere administrative negligence; it is a criminal betrayal of citizens and a blatant violation of international loan conditions,” Khera said.

The Congress leader argued that the Indore tragedy was not an isolated incident, citing recent cases in the state, including the deaths of children allegedly linked to contaminated cough syrup and reports of unhygienic conditions in government hospitals.

“Today people are dying from drinking sewage-mixed water. Madhya Pradesh under the BJP has become an epicentre of misgovernance, where apathy kills and accountability is nowhere to be found,” he said.

Calling clean drinking water a fundamental right, Khera said the denial of this right “squarely indicts the BJP’s double-engine government”.

He demanded immediate intervention by the Prime Minister’s Office, escalation of the matter to the Asian Development Bank, and a Supreme Court–level independent inquiry to fix responsibility. “Only such intervention can ensure that those responsible are held accountable and that the blood of innocent citizens does not go unavenged,” Khera said.

Raising a series of pointed questions, he asked how sewage could contaminate a city’s drinking water system without official knowledge, why warnings from citizens were allegedly ignored, and who would take responsibility for what he called “entirely preventable deaths.”