Cong hits back at Nadda after letter to Sonia Gandhi

Slamming BJP president JP Nadda, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said that blame game politics will not absolve BJP's sins of ignoring the crisis and the people's right to health under Article 21 of the Constitution of India."

New Delhi: Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda wrote a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, accusing the party of “misleading” people and creating "false panic" over COVID-19, Congress hits back and even sought an apology from him on behalf of the central government for "mismanaging" the pandemic.

While speaking over the matter, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said instead of writing an acquisitory letter to the Congress party, Nadda should write an apology letter on behalf of the BJP for pushing India into the "hellfire" of COVID second wave.

He further added, "Blame game politics will not absolve BJP's sins of ignoring the crisis and the people's right to health under Article 21 of Constitution of India."

He said that Nadda, instead of accusing the Congress party, should have apologized to all the families who have lost their loved ones because of lack of oxygen, hospital beds and health infrastructure.

"He must apologize for not listening to the experts regarding potential oxygen shortage supply, for putting the nation into a scenario of vaccine shortage, for exporting 6.5 crore vaccines and ignoring the local population of India," Shergill added.

In his letter, the BJP chief alleged that the conduct of Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, will be remembered for "duplicity and pettiness". He also accused the Congress leaders of trying to actively create vaccine hesitancy.

This comes a day after Congress Working Committee (CWC) slammed the central government over the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, saying that the Prime Minister must atone for his mistakes and commit to serving people.

Attacking the Center, Shergill said, "BJP government's mismanagement, misrepresentation and misleading tactics are solely responsible for India going through hell but sadly, Nadda and BJP are still busy in saying that all is well. The BJP should realize that their stale, repetitive, overused stunts for blaming the Congress for everything are no longer cutting ice with the public."

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram also tweeted over the matter, saying, "Instead of writing an ill-informed letter to the Congress president, BJP president JP Nadda may read the guest column in the New York Times on May 6, 2021. The authors are not Congress members. Their names may ring a bell in JP Nadda: Dr Abhijit Banerjee and Dr Esther Duflo, Nobel Prize winners."