VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi take moral responsibility for the loss of thousands of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic due to his “utterly inept handling of this public health crisis”, and resign immediately.
In a statement, Mr. Thirumavalavan noted that Mr. Modi continued to campaign in West Bengal, drawing huge crowds, in spite of a huge increase in COVID-19 infections across the country.
“The scale of the devastation caused by this second wave greatly exceeds that of the first wave. In the interim period, vaccines have been discovered to fight the virus, and India leads the world in vaccine production. If vaccines made in India were administered to the people in a proper and timely manner, such massive loss of lives could have been averted. However, without any care for the people of India, Mr. Modi was paying more attention to exporting Indian vaccines to other countries and to his election rallies,” he said.
The VCK leader said the State governments were not being allowed to take decisions independently as their hands were tied.
“If the State governments had been allowed to directly procure vaccines, the scale of damage could have been restricted. The PMGKP insurance scheme, created to provide insurance coverage to healthcare providers, including doctors and community health workers, has also been stopped by the Modi government since March 24. This is another example which shows the Modi government does not care about people’s lives,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan said the Prime Minister “does not have any long-term vision for handling the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Demanding his resignation, Mr. Thirumavalavan said, “If Mr. Modi continues as the Prime Minister, it will further endanger the lives of Indians. His disregard for people’s lives has already caused enormous loss of life, a public health emergency and a financial emergency.”
