New Delhi: Congress Working Committee, on Saturday, made a scathing attack on Narendra Modi-led Central Government claiming its COVID-19 crisis management working on 'no thinking, no planning' policy.
After the CWC meeting, the party informed that all the suggestions that being given by various leaders of Congress' decision-making body will be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tomorrow. These suggestions will be sent in the form of a letter, by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
In its resolution, the Congress Working Committee noted, "The initial response measures of the central government were ludicrous, to say the least. The Prime Minister went on national television to exhort people to clang plates, and after two weeks he went on national television to exhort people to light lamps. Medical experts held back their criticism of such superstitious rites, and knowledgeable persons cautioned the government that it ought to take scientific measures to confront the pandemic."
Congress listed a number of "grave errors", charging the Central Government with "colossal mismanagement" of the war against the pandemic. This includes "failure" in creating sufficient public awareness regarding a second wave, to rapidly scale up the production and supply of vaccines, to universalise vaccination, to leave the vaccine roll-out to the state governments, to prevent, or at least minimize, the wastage of vaccine doses, to curb the exports of large quantities of vaccine doses to other countries, and many others.
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Congress also blamed the Center for failing to provide adequate funds to the state governments that were fighting a two-front war, one against the pandemic and the other against the economic recession, asserting that it is happening despite accumulating hundreds of crores of rupees in the "opaque" PM-CARES Fund.
The resolution stated, "In conclusion, with a heavy heart, we caution the people that unless urgent corrective measures are taken the nation faces an unprecedented catastrophe. May wisdom prevail."
While addressing a press conference after the meet, Congress General Secretary in-charge K C Venugopal informed that the working committee has asked Pradesh Congress Committees to set up control rooms to assist people.
Meanwhile, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram made a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing election rallies amid the rapid surge in COVID-19 cases across the country.
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He said, "It is shocking callousness on the part of the Prime Minister to be addressing rallies in West Bengal for an election, instead of staying in Delhi and coordinating among Ministries. We all know that this is a one-person Government. All these decisions have been taken by the PM or by his office. I hope that the people of West Bengal will take a note of his shocking callousness and give him a befitting reply."
On the matter of import of vaccines, Chidambaram said, "They ridiculed Mr Rahul Gandhi when he said allow other vaccines to be used in the country. In fact, one minister went on to say that he is lobbying for foreign pharma companies. I hope the minister has a good sense to apologize."
He questioned the Government, "You are ready to import but do they have enough stock to export? Practically, the entire collection of these foreign vaccines have been preempted by UN and European countries. They have placed advanced orders months ago, they have given huge sums of money. You should've anticipated the number of vaccines required in this country."
"Serum institute demands Rs 3,000 crores to ramp up the manufacturing facility. Why the Government is not responding? If I was the Finance Minister, I would've immediately sanctioned the requisite amount without waiting for cabinet approval," Chidambaram asserted.
