‘National lockdown almost inevitable’: Rahul writes to Modi again, lists four ‘urgent’ suggestions on Covid-19

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday with four urgent issues to address: scientifically tracking the virus and its mutations using genome sequencing; assessing all vaccines against new mutations; rapidly vaccinating the population; and transparently keeping the world informed of the findings. He said the government’s failures in containing the pandemic have made “another devastating national lockdown almost inevitable”.

Gandhi’s letter is the second to the Prime Minister amid the second wave of Covid-19 in India.

“Your government’s lack of a clear and coherent Covid and vaccination strategy… has placed India in a highly dangerous position,” Gandhi said.

He told PM Modi it is “important to understand India’s responsibility in a globalised and interconnected world”, given that India is “home to one out of every six human beings on the planet”.

“The pandemic has demonstrated that our size, genetic diversity and complexity make India fertile ground for the virus to rapidly mutate, transforming itself into a more contagious and more dangerous form. The double and triple mutant strains that we are currently grappling with are only the beginning, I fear,” Gandhi said, adding that the “uncontrollable spread” of the virus would be devastating not only for India, but the rest of the world.

India reported 4.14 lakh new infections on Thursday. The country’s caseload, now over 2.14 crore, includes 36 lakh active cases, 1.76 crore recoveries and 2.34 deaths.