TRS blasts BJP chief for criticising Telangana Covid testing

HYDERABAD: TRS has hit back at BJP president JP Nadda for his insinuation that the Telangana government was wanting in measures in reining in Covid-19. The party said the BJP leader, who once was Health Minister too, should have known that taking the doctors to task would only erode their morale. Finance Minister T Harish Rao, in a tweet on Sunday, vented his anger at the BJP president for coming down heavily on States accusing them of not handling Covid-19 and added that it was tantamount to harming internal security of the country.

He wanted to know how can the BJP president consider criticising States as constructive politics at a time when he himself was saying that those who belittle the role of the Army should know that it would weaken the morale of the Armed Forces. He asked,”If you come down on doctors, wouldn’t it act as a drag on their morale?” He recalled the Prime Minister saying often that effort of the doctors, who are waging a war on Coronavirus was no less significant than that of the soldiers, who fight with enemy to protect the country.

“If that was the case, why are you making uncharitable comments aimed at demoralising the doctors?” In another statement, Health Minister Eatala Rajender described Nadda casting aspersions on Telangana in containing Coronavirus, as cheap politics. Nadda should know that what BJP-ruled States were doing on this front, before coming down on others. He wanted to know if Nadda would say Gujarat had failed because the number of deaths and cases were high in that BJP-ruled State.

Would Prime Minister, who is from Gujarat take responsibility for the dismal performance of the State in tackling Covid-19? He said Nadda should realise that Covid-19 is a worldwide problem and in Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was monitoring it continuously. He had even set up a command control centre to get a realistic picture of the spread of the virus, Rajender said. He reminded Nadda that it was Telangana, who told the entire nation how Coronavirus could be contained.

“When religious convention of Tablighi Jamaat was going on at Delhi, you were not even aware of it until Telangana brought it to your notice,” he said. In videoconferences, it was the Chief Minister, who supported the Centre in its fight against Coronavirus, he said. “KCR was the first Chief Minister to demand a ban on international flights to rein in Coronavirus. Telangana was he only State which had enforced lockdown on a full scale,” he said and advised him to explain to people what the Centre had done in containing the virus before heaping allegations on others.