Prime Minister Narendra Modi met soldiers injured in Galwan Valley during a visit to Ladakh to boost the morale of the armed forces personnel in the region

The hospital where Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Indian Army soldiers injured in the Galwan Valley clash with China on Friday is an active medical facility in Leh, and not a staged setting as some people have been alleging.

The facility that PM Modi visited is the General Hospital in Leh where these soldiers are receiving medical care after they returned from Galwan Valley following the clash with Chinese troops on the night of June 15.

This particular section has been earmarked for soldiers from Galwan Valley to keep them away from Covid-19 wards in other parts of the General Hospital.

Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane had visited the injured soldiers in the same location on June 23 as had the Army Commander.

“General MM Naravane #COAS interacting with our gallant soldiers at Military Hospital, Leh during his two day visit to Eastern #Ladakh,” the Indian Army had said in a Twitter post the same day and shared photographs.



The Indian Army has also come out with a detailed statement, slamming as "malicious and unsubstantiated" the accusations in some quarters that raised questions about the status of the hospital in Leh that PM Modi Modi visited during his visit to Ladakh. The hospital was very much a part of the Leh General Hospital, it said, reacting to reports that the visit was “staged”.

Some people took to social media and expressed doubts about the status of the medical facility after photographs and videos of PM Modi interacting with soldiers recovering at the hospital were released officially.

“Interacting with our brave Jawans, who do everything to protect our nation,” PM Modi had said while sharing a video on Twitter



Several social media accounts pointed to a whiteboard and desk at one end of the hall that the Prime Minister visited, saying that this looked more like a conference room and suggested that this had been hurriedly converted into a hospital for the Prime Minister’s visit. Others also noticed what seemed like an overhead projector and pointed to the lack of medical equipment like drips or oxygen cylinders.

“Did the PM's Office ask for a hospital ward to be staged... with soldiers being made to fake injury... so our PM can get a feel good photo op?,” one of them asked on Twitter.



Describing as "unfortunate" the aspersions that were being cast on the way the members of the armed forces were treated, the Indian Army in a statement said that the facility was part of the "Crisis Expansion" capacity of 100 beds and was "very much part" of the General Hospital Complex.

The injured soldiers had been kept there ever since their arrival from Galwan Valley to ensure quarantine from Covid areas in the hospital complex, the Indian Army said.

The Covid-19 protocols that are in place had made it necessary to convert some wards in the General Hospital into isolation facilities, it said. "Hence, this hall which otherwise was normally used as a Training Audio Video Hall was converted into a ward ever since the hospital was also designated as COVID treatment hospital," the statement said.

India had confirmed that 20 soldiers had been killed in action during a violent face-off along the Line of Control, while a number of others were injured.