The Congress, on Saturday, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for campaigning in West Bengal instead of staying in Delhi to coordinate the measures to contain the resurgence of the pandemic even as it stepped up its criticism of the ruling dispensation at the Centre over the “colossal mismanagement” of the fight against COVID-19.
Briefing the media after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held to discuss the COVID-19 situation, P. Chidambaram said it was shocking on the part of Prime Minister Modi to be addressing rallies in West Bengal instead of staying in Delhi to coordinate amongst the ministries to deal with the pandemic.
“We all know it is a one-person government, and all decisions are taken by one person. He should be in Delhi fighting the war instead of addressing rallies. Is this the time to hold large rallies? Crores of rupees are being spent in holding mega rallies,” Chidambaram said, replying to a question on whether it was proper to have elections and a large congregation at the Kumbh Mela at a time when COVID-19 numbers are surging.
“He (Modi) should be at his desk ensuring vaccine supplies are augmented and addressing the demands of states. He should be interacting with the chief ministers, coordinating availability of oxygen and ventilators. If he thinks this is all beneath the prime minister's job, I am sorry, this is the prime minister's job to do,” Chidambaram said.
“The prime minister should be at his job, at his desk, accessible to every chief minister of the country. The chief ministers should not be speaking to the private secretary to the prime minister, but to him. Why is he not accessible to the chief ministers? When there was a war, where were Indira Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri? They were at their desk,” Chidambaram said.
He said clubbing the remaining phases of the elections in West Bengal may not be possible, but the party maintained its stance that the elections did not require to be conducted in eight phases.
With regard to the initiative taken by Modi to convince seers to have a symbolic 'snan' at the Kumbh Mela in view of the pandemic, Chidambaram said it was an example of locking the stables after the horses had bolted.
In response to another question, the former union minister said 'laxity' was a mild word to describe the Modi government's mismanagement of the COVID-19 situation. “This is causing deaths by criminal negligence,” he said.
The CWC, in a statement issued after the meeting, attacked the Modi regime for its “grave errors and colossal mismanagement” in dealing with the COVID-19 situation, stating that the country was paying a very heavy price for the “thoughtlessness and unpreparedness” of the Union government.
It said the government failed to create sufficient public awareness that a waning pandemic could be a precursor to a second wave that may be more devastating than the first wave.
The CWC criticised the government for failing to rapidly scale up the production and supply of the two approved vaccines in the country by providing sufficient funds and other concessions.
“We regret to say that the nation is paying a very heavy price for the thoughtlessness and unpreparedness of the NDA government to tackle the gravest disaster that has hit the country and has affected millions of families, claiming 1,75,673 lives so far. It is a shame that the country with the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing capacity has earned the odium of being among the most affected countries in the world,” the CWC said.
The suggestions made at the CWC meeting chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi would be collated and sent to PM Modi in a letter, on Sunday, by former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
To a question on whether a nationwide lockdown was needed to control the ongoing COVID-19 surge, Chidambaram said every state seemed to be moving towards a lockdown or a near full lockdown because of the Centre's wrong policies. “Let us wait and see for a couple of days where it is taking us,” he said.
He added that a lockdown would no doubt worsen the economic situation and put off the revival of the economy by another six to 12 months.
Chidambaram claimed that the Centre was discriminating against opposition-ruled states. He referred to news reports to point out that Maharashtra was near the bottom in terms of vaccine supply whereas it should have got the largest share of vaccines.
He said the government had ridiculed Rahul Gandhi when he had asked for allowing vaccines approved in other countries to be used in India. “He was criticised for lobbying for foreign pharma companies. I hope the minister who said it now has the good sense to apologise to him,” he said, referring to the approval given for import of vaccines.
Chidambaram, however, said while India was now ready to import, the pharma companies may not have stocks available to export to the country since their production has been pre-empted by the US and European countries.
He asked why the government was not responding to the Serum Institute of India's plea for a funding of Rs 3,000 crore to ramp up manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccine. “If the Congress were in government, and say, I was the finance minister, I would immediately have sanctioned Rs 3,000 crore without waiting for the cabinet to meet,” he said.
