The Congress leadership believes the second wave of Covid-19 acquired dreadful dimensions because the Narendra Modi government didn’t anticipate a relapse and failed to undertake the vaccination drive on a war footing.
Pointing out the Centre’s casual approach after the infection graph dipped early this year and vaccines were developed, many leaders say the critical advantage of time and resources were frittered away as the government lowered the guard instead of seizing the moment.
The Congress feels that the lack of planning manifested in the slow and non-serious launch of the vaccination drive and export of vaccines.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Thursday: “There is neither testing, nor hospital beds, ventilators or oxygen. Even vaccines aren’t there. But there is a pretense of ‘utsav’ (festival). PMCares?”
Rahul was referring to the Prime Minister’s suggestion to hold a four-day-long “tika utsav” (vaccination fest) at a time when tragic scenes from hospitals and crematoriums have shaken the country.
Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala tweeted: “Pracharjeevi (one who survives on publicity), you have amazing achievements in the last seven years. Hospital admission is not available to the alive and crematorium is not available to the dead. Tell us if this happened even in the last 75 years after Independence? Modi hai to mumkin hai.”
Asserting that this dreadful crisis was avoidable, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate told The Telegraph: “We strongly believe it is the Modi government’s incompetence, arrogance, inefficiency and premature celebration that has landed us in this crisis. Instead of consolidating the gains where our infections dipped, the reckless chest thumping falsely convinced people all is well. From phrases like ‘the end game’ to ‘bending the curve like Beckham’, irresponsible statements made by the Modi government are responsible for the kind of mayhem we are seeing on the streets today.”
Shrinate added: “The government lost precious time in the last one year and instead of augmenting our capacity and preparedness for a second wave, it focused on politics, it took its foot off the pedal and as a result we are seeing the complete collapse of our healthcare infrastructure.”
Taking strong objections to the Centre’s denial of vaccine shortage, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said: “I never expected somebody like Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to make an untrue statement that there is no shortage. It is absolutely wrong to say that the states have mismanaged the vaccination drive. Instead of lying, the Centre could have assured the states that enough vaccines will be made available soon. ”
Maharashtra minister Sunil Kedar told this newspaper: “ That we vaccinated only three lakh people per day in February and now we are doing over 35-lakh daily proves we started slow and allowed the virus to strike back. It is sad we didn’t kill the monster despite having the potent weapon.”