HYDERABAD: BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao, on Thursday, said he was not sure if the nationwide lockdown would be lifted on May 3. Speaking to the media via a video-conferencing app, he said that it was not befitting for Congress president Sonia Gandhi to cast aspersions on the way the Modi-dispensation has been managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The BJP never threw communal paint on the crisis that followed Covid-19. It never blamed anyone for the outbreak, though we know that it was exacerbated by the Marakz returnees,” he said. Muralidhar Rao pointed out that 83 per cent of the Covid-positive patients in Tamil Nadu, 60 per cent in Telangana and a majority in Maharashtra and other states were those who had returned from the religious convention held at Markaz-Nizamuddin. 

The BJP leader said that the Prime Minister was busy boosting the economy during Covid-19 pandemic. “He has been working round-the-clock to bring the economy back to life,” he said.  Though risky, several sectors have been opened up, including agriculture and small-scale industries, with the benign intention of kick-starting the economy, Muralidhar Rao said.  “All the State governments have been working with the Centre, despite the ideological differences,” the BJP strongman added.

Speaking about the migrant crisis, he said, “Almost every village in the country houses stranded migrant workers. If they are permitted to return to their native villages, the situation would get out of control.”
He further said that he was not sure if educational institutions would be able to run from June or July, but added that the MHRD has been consulting the institutes in this regard.

“Clear guidelines would be formulated in a week on the functioning of educational institutions,” he said.
Muralidhar Rao also said many certified private labs across the country were ready to test for Covid-19 and hoped that the Telangana government would soon permit them to do so in the State.