Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asked Narendra Modi to form a panel that is mandated to meet daily to interact with top experts to devise strategies for India’s battle against Covid even as he blamed the Prime Minister for the second wave of the pandemic.
At a virtual press conference on Covid, Gandhi asked the government to stop the blame game and procure vaccines from wherever it can. He pointed out the US has vaccinated 50% of its population and even countries such as Brazil are ahead of India. “At this rate, we can vaccinate our entire population only by 2024.”
Gandhi sought the setting up of the panel, saying the strategy so far has been completely wrong. “The RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]-BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] do not allow the PM [Prime Minister] to get any information. He should form a panel that would meet daily and talk to experts to make the strategy.” He asked Modi to involve others as well.
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Gandhi blamed the Centre for having kept the door wide open for the virus to circulate and added various stakeholders need to be on the same page to keep it out. “If [Chhattisgarh chief minister] Bhupesh Baghel, [his West Bengal counterpart] Mamata Banerjee and Modi are on the same page, coronavirus can be kept out,” he said. “Many people and I had been giving non-stop warnings against Covid. But the PM declared victory, saying Covid has been defeated.”
{{/usCountry}}Gandhi blamed the Centre for having kept the door wide open for the virus to circulate and added various stakeholders need to be on the same page to keep it out. “If [Chhattisgarh chief minister] Bhupesh Baghel, [his West Bengal counterpart] Mamata Banerjee and Modi are on the same page, coronavirus can be kept out,” he said. “Many people and I had been giving non-stop warnings against Covid. But the PM declared victory, saying Covid has been defeated.”
{{/usCountry}}Gandhi said the problem is that the government and the PM did not even understand that Covid-19 is an evolving disease. “The more you give time and space to the virus, the more dangerous it becomes,” he said. He emphasised that only the vaccine is a permanent solution while lockdown, masks, and social distancing are temporary solutions. “I told the PM, if you do not implement vaccine strategy properly, Covid waves will continue to come. There will be fourth, fifth, sixth waves too,” he said.
There was no immediate response from the government or the BJP to Gandhi’s comments.