Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, said he behaved like a “coward”.
“Indians do not come first for the Prime Minister, politics does,” Ms. Vadra alleged in a social media post as part of her Zimmedar Kaun (Who’s responsible?) campaign.
“The Prime Minister of India has behaved like a coward. He has let our country down. Indians do not come first for him. Politics does. Truth does not concern him, propaganda does. The time has come for us to ask him: ZIMMEDAAR KAUN?” Ms. Vadra said, posting a 39-seconds video.
“The government failed us in every front. They could have managed the situation so that we could have had enough oxygen in the hospitals; they could have listened to experts and increased the number of beds; they could have ordered vaccines when other countries ordered them, back in June, July and May, 2020. They did none of this and just left people to fend for themselves,” Ms. Vadra said in the video.
“The government is answerable to the people of India for their obsession with propaganda and PR and putting it above the health and the lives of the people,” she added.
At the party’s official briefing, spokesperson Pawan Khera said COVID-19 victims are being denied dignity even after death as they are not even acknowledged as statistics in the BJP-ruled States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
The party demanded an independent judicial inquiry into alleged data manipulation in these States and sought the resignation of the respective Chief Ministers.
“In Madhya Pradesh, the record registers from Mukti Dhams (cremation grounds) are being taken away and hidden, so that people like you, brave journalists would not get access to the figures,” Mr. Khera alleged.
The Congress’s latest allegation about data manipulation follows a report in a leading newspaper in Madhya Pradesh that claimed a four-fold increase in the number of deaths in the State in May this year compared with the previous years. The State registered nearly 1.7 lakh deaths in May, it said.
“Under New India of Mr. Modi, the importance given to human life is gone down so much that it is not even a mere statistics any more. These deaths will not even be counted in statistics any more, which is a most unfortunate thing that we have witnessed through this pandemic,” Mr. Khera alleged.
“We demand an independent judicial inquiry across all these States and across States to probe the number of COVID-19 deaths. We demand that Chief Ministers of these States must resign now as they have no moral right to continue in their positions,” he added.
