The Congress on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the coronavirus crisis is the biggest example of “leadership failure” in India’s history as it not only destroyed the economy but also subjected the people to unprecedented hardships.

Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala said: “In times of crisis, the nation looks up to the Prime Minister for guidance. But the Prime Minister initially delayed India’s preparations for the struggle against the pandemic for political reasons and then took a series of wrong decisions. Now the battle against corona rages on, but the general is missing in action. India has become the corona capital of the world. This is indeed the biggest example of leadership failure in India’s history.”

The Congress listed the government’s failure to anticipate the gravity of the crisis initially despite repeated warnings, its hosting the Namaste Trump event in February and keeping Parliament open till March 23 to ensure the government in Madhya Pradesh was pulled down. On March 24, the government declared a nationwide lockdown on a four-hour notice.

The Congress accused the Prime Minister of acting on his whims, rather than taking collective decisions or paying heed to constructive suggestions, and using the lockdown to attack constitutional rights and the federal structure.

“While the economy was destroyed, leading to millions of job losses, states were pushed into deep financial stress as the Centre refused to pay GST compensation,” Surjewala alleged.

On Monday morning, Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Modi Government drags the country into crisis and starts acting like Ostrich instead of finding solutions to the problems. The country is leading every wrong race — be it Coronavirus infection or fall in GDP growth rate.”

Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “So now it is official. India has crossed Brazil and is the second worst Covid-19 infected country next to the US. This is the price nations pay for having divisive, self-obsessed leaders who think they are Sarvagyaani (omniscient).”

While the Congress, which has the experience of governance for decades, submitted proposals and complete action plan on every aspect of the challenges posed by the pandemic — from healthcare and economy to humanitarian crisis — several economists and domain experts of international repute offered suggestions to the government. However, the government chose to ignore them.

The first major crisis of Modi’s tenure as Prime Minister was demonetisation in 2016. While the lack of preparations created huge problems for people, including over 150 deaths, the impact on economy is now clearly visible. Modi stoutly refuted the assessments by economists and seasoned administrators such as Manmohan Singh, sarcastically declaring that “hard work” was better than “Harvard.”

The goods and services tax (GST), which was launched with great fanfare at a midnight function in Parliament, almost equating it with India’s Independence, again created chaos in the business community, forcing the government to change rules and procedures multiple times.

Surjewala said: “Modi’s behaviour hasn’t been prime ministerial; he is playing with peacocks and changing clothes for photoshoot when the country is in deep crisis. He has abdicated his responsibility. There are no answers from him on all the vital questions about the plight of the nation.”

Modi is the only head of the state in the world who hasn’t addressed any press conference during this global pandemic.

A Prime Minister who publicly announced that the battle against corona would be won in 21 days is silent when the rampaging virus has taken India to the second spot in the world after 165 days.

Surjewala said: “India is number one in the world in terms of daily rise in cases (over 90,000), in terms of deaths (1,016 deaths daily). While we reached 0 to 1 lakh case in 110 days and the next one lakh in 59 days, we jumped from 30 lakh to 40 lakh in 13 days. Experts believe we will reach 1 crore by November 30. It has now spread in rural areas where the healthcare infrastructure is very poor.”