The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) attacked the Union government and the BJP on Saturday for mismanaging the Covid crisis and praised its party leader and chief minister Hemnat Soren for "exposing" the Centre's shortcomings through his recent tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

Soon after Modi spoke to Hemant on Thursday night, the chief minister likened the exercise to the PM’s Mann Ki Baat. “Honorable PM has phoned today. He did mann ki baat (only spoke). It would have been fruitful if he had spoken about the burning issues and concerns and listened as well,” he said in a tweet that seem to rattle the BJP and the Union government no end.

The BJP then flielded Union ministers, chief ministers and other notables to condemn Hemant’s action throughout Friday.

While Hemant chose not to react, his party, the JMM, critcised the Modi government for denying Jharkhand its rights and hailed the chief minister for speaking out against it as the chief minister.

“Is speaking the right thing wrong today under BJP rule in the country? While others chose to keep mum, our CM did what is expected of him—to stand for his people at a time when the state is reeling under Ccovid-19 crisis,” said JMM general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharjee.

The JMM said there was nothing derogatory in Hemant’s tweet as had been alleged by the BJP. “Out of concern and getting no assistance from the Centre, the CM was forced to speak out. He had expected PM to hear his concerns and requirements, which didn’t happen. In a sense, CM has exposed the way the Centre is treating Jharkhand,” he said.

Bhattacharjee said Jharkhand was battling a shortage of medicines and resources at a time when the state was recording a four-digit spike in cases and 100 deaths every day.

“We require 4.5 crore doses of vaccine but we have only got 29.83 lakh so far. The situation now is so dire that we don’t have enough stocks to vaccinate those awaiting their second dose,” he said.

“As far as medicines are concerned, we required 4,28,500 rRemdesivr but received only 29,000 vials. We need 475 vials of tocilizumab, but have got only 265. We asked for 41000 Fabiflu but that is still pending,” he added.