As India logged a world file of over 4 lakh coronavirus infections on Saturday, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi mentioned your complete world is shaken by what is occurring right here and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “dropping the ball and throwing it to states” after prematurely taking credit score for having “won against COVID-19” when the second wave was already underway.
“Rely on yourself is the motto. No one will come to help you. Definitely, not the prime minister,” Gandhi mentioned, whereas alleging that the COVID-19 scenario has gone fully uncontrolled for the Modi authorities, and questioned whether or not it was their manner of constructing the states and the residents actually ‘Aatmanirbhar’.
In an unique interview to PTI, the previous Congress chief alleged that the federal government fully failed to grasp or to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, proper from the very starting, regardless of repeated warnings together with from scientists.
Training his weapons on the prime minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, Gandhi mentioned India have to be the one nation on the earth going through this huge pandemic with out the steering of an skilled and empowered group that’s charged with combating the virus and defending the individuals, with planning forward, anticipating wants and taking the selections that can lead to swift motion to save lots of lives.
“They continuously ignored rising cases and were busy instead with election campaigns. They encouraged super-spreader events. They even bragged about them. Our Prime Minister and Home Minister were not even wearing masks in public over the past few months. What sort of a message is that sending to citizens?” Gandhi mentioned.
He was referring to election rallies that have been not too long ago held for 5 assemblies for West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Leaders of all main events together with BJP and Congress participated in rallies, however determined to curtail the scale of conferences and even cancelled some in the direction of the tip of the marketing campaign for West Bengal when circumstances started rising extra sharply.
Gandhi, who was among the many first to cancel his rallies and had additionally urged different political leaders to take action, famous that the second COVID-19 wave is a tsunami that has introduced absolute devastation and has destroyed all the things in its manner.
The former Congress chief termed the story of vaccine pricing within the nation as considered one of “discount sales” and a “complete eyewash” alleging that the vaccine makers first marked up the costs after which decreased that whereas making a present of your complete train.
Asked who’s liable for the present scenario, Gandhi mentioned, “The prime minister is at fault. He runs a highly centralised and personalised government machinery, is solely and substantially devoted to building his own brand, is utterly focused on imagery rather than substance.”
“The fact is that this government completely failed to understand or to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic — right from the very beginning, despite repeated warnings,” he alleged.
Attacking the Modi Government over the dealing with of the scenario, he alleged it’s “plainly arrogant and focuses on perception over reality”.
“Now that the situation is completely out of control, they have dropped the ball and thrown it to the states… The need of the hour is to hold hands, work together and heal our people,” Gandhi mentioned.
Gandhi alleged that the federal government declared victory towards the virus too quickly and that this was “absolute insanity” and demonstrated an entire misunderstanding of the character of what this virus was.
The solely approach to combat Corona is with humility and by realizing that you’re confronted with a relentless opponent, who can adapt and could be very resilient, he mentioned, noting that the prime minister had a whole 12 months to higher put together, to guard India, and to suppose by means of this disaster however did nothing.
“The Modi Government was both grossly negligent and blindly overconfident. The BJP announced the end of the pandemic and congratulated the Prime Minister for his ‘success’ even as the second wave was just beginning. The Prime Minister himself is on record as having said that India had successfully fought the pandemic and won. In reality, there was no coherent strategy,” he mentioned.
The former Congress chief mentioned the one answer we have now is vaccination and India is meant to be the biggest producer of vaccines on the earth.
“And yet, India is desperately short of vaccines. We are making them, why were our people not the first in line to be vaccinated? If that is not a failure to plan and execute, what is?”
Gandhi mentioned because the begin of the pandemic in 2020, he warned the federal government in regards to the catastrophe forward if pressing steps to organize weren’t taken, however they attacked me and ridiculed me.
“It’s not just me –– anyone who tried to sound the alarm, the state callously and thoughtlessly ignored,” he mentioned.
He alleged that the Modi Government let this virus enter India by means of our airports in February and March of 2020 after which it panicked and with out session or thought imposed the world’s harshest lockdown.
Gandhi alleged that it is a authorities that wishes to regulate all the things. “When cases went down, they declared victory, and the Prime Minister took all the credit as he always does. Now that the situation is terrible, why are you blaming the states?”
He mentioned Congress is prepared to help the federal government on this disaster, however the issue arises when the federal government doesn’t imagine in session, in carrying everybody alongside, in tapping experience it lacks.
“This government seems to think that acknowledging help is needed is a sign of weakness. The hubris and pettiness of this government is unbelievable,” he mentioned.
On the Madras High Court not too long ago accusing the Election Commission of being an excellent spreader, Gandhi mentioned the Court was echoing a broadly held view.
In the previous 7 years, like so many different establishments, the Election Commission of India has additionally crumbled and “The Court has said what it believes, I don’t want to make any further comment. Let your readers judge for themselves.”
He mentioned our establishments are a warning system — they offer us suggestions and data on how to reply to disaster however our establishments have been fully destroyed and brought over.
“The press, judiciary, election fee, forms – none of them have performed their function of guardian/watchdog. This means India right this moment is sort of a ship in a storm, crusing with none info.
“Corona is just part of the problem — the real problem is that India now doesn’t have the capacity to respond to any major crisis because of what has been done to its systems over the last six years,” he mentioned.
