New Delhi: As COVID-19 cases in India touched a new high, breaching the 90,000 mark, the Congress on Monday said India was the world's "Corona Capital" and demanded a reply from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the government's plan to control the spread of infection.
Taking a jibe at the Prime Minister, Congress' Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "On March 24, Modi ji pronounced that Battle of Mahabharata lasted for 18 days and the battle against Corona shall be won in 21 days. 166 days later the whole country is fighting an epic Battle of Mahabharata against the corona pandemic. People are dying of the disease but Modi ji is busy in photoshoots feeding birds."
"In the fight against coronavirus, the Modi government has proved itself to be wholly impetuous, completely incompetent and utterly amateurish. In the middle of the worst pandemic ever, BJP government has disowned the people, leaving them to fend for themselves."
On Saturday, India had reported more than 90,800 cases, overtaking Brazil to become the country with the second highest number of coronavirus cases.
The Congress noted that USA and Brazil, comparably, do not have even half the number of daily coronavirus cases and rest of the countries are not adding more than ten thousand cases in 24 hours.
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Citing experts, Surjewala stated that with the current rate of infection, India will touch the 1 crore mark in terms of total cases by November 30 and feared that the deaths due to pandemic could reach as high as 1,75,000.
"The unplanned and un-thought lockdown implemented by PM Modi with three hours notice utterly failed to stop COVID-19 on one hand and destroyed the economy, lives and livelihoods of people on the other hand. In India, this would be remembered as 'Tughlaqi blunder' of Modiji's failure of leadership," said the Congress leader.
On the recently released unlock guidelines, which also includes the resumption of Metro Services, Surjewala said, "Most experts have predicted that India is going through 'Second Wave' of infection. Some other experts have opined that 'Community Transmission' has begun. Modi government remains either unaware or refuses to even acknowledge the same. They should come forward to explain the real situation of COVID-19 spread in India."
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Surjewala demanded a reply from PM Modi over the "failure" of his government to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the further planning to control the spread as well as to take the economy back on track.
"How will the government arrest the alarming rise in Corona infection? How will Modi Government check the spurt in Corona deaths? How will you restore sinking economy? Does Modi Government have a solution or will it blame the God?" asked Surjewala.
