Congress leader Rahul Gandhi once again on Friday hit back at PM Modi over the Centre’s Covid handling during the second wave and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was responsible for the second wave as he did not understand Covid at all. He also predicted that India will be hit by multiple Covid waves if the government failed to get its vaccine strategy right. Soon after, the government hit back and declared that vaccinations would be completed before December this year.
Addressing a virtual press conference Gandhi said the Prime Minister’s indulgence in nautanki was the reason for the second wave which saw India a record number of daily Covid cases and deaths.
Rather than events, Gandhi said, India needs a vaccine strategy. He also said that the Prime Minister does not think strategically. Calling PM Modi, an event manager, Gandhi said the country doesn’t need events but a strategy. The people are being killed so that an effective strategy is needed, he said. Accusing PM Modi on the ignorance of Covid he commented that India needs effective and speedy administration battling Covid second wave.
Expressing his concern over the vaccine shortage in India, Gandhi said India had vaccinated only three per cent of its population, leaving the rest open to infection. He also said vaccination is the only permanent solution against Covid and lockdowns, social distancing and masks were temporary ones.
The US has vaccinated half its population while Brazil has vaccinated 8 to 9 per cent. Notably, they are not the vaccine capital, India is as India make vaccines.
Cautioning the government, the Congress leader said the current pace of vaccinating the population wasn’t fast enough and warned of more waves of the infection as the virus mutates. He said India’s mortality rate is a lie and the government is spreading this lie.
He said the government should understand that the opposition is not their enemy and showing them the way. India would not have gone through this crisis if the government had heard them in February.
In his address, he had had directly told the PM that India will witness multiple waves as the virus will mutate and adapt. The PM is trying to repair his image but his image is gone. It is time to stands up and leads the nation. He said these are the times where he has to show his leadership, his courage, his strength.
In the government’s return fire, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar lashed out at Gandhi’s use of the word nautanki while targeting PM Modi, said Gandhi’s words confirmed that the Congress had indeed prepared a toolkit to discredit PM Modi.
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Javadekar also said vaccinations in India will be complete in 2021 before December. If Rahul is worried about vaccination then he should focus on Congress-ruled states where there are problems in the drive.