Modi Govt Fails to Handle Coronavirus Crisis: Sonia Gandhi
In a centralized administrative environment in which PM Narendra Modi works as an autocrat with absolute powers, Modi’s ability to handle such a gruesome situation is being questioned.
By Rakesh Raman
As the devastation being caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is increasing across India, people are concerned about government’s lack of response to control the situation.
In a centralized administrative environment in which PM Narendra Modi works as an autocrat with absolute powers, Modi’s ability to handle such a gruesome situation is being questioned – particularly because Modi is not a properly educated politician.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is among Modi’s critics. Today, she blamed the Modi government for its failure to handle the ongoing crisis. “As the (coronavirus) lockdown continues, all sections of our society continue to face acute hardship and distress. The Central (Modi) government does not appear to have a clear idea on how the situation will be managed after 3rd May,” Sonia Gandhi said.
As the lockdown continues, all sections of our society continue to face acute hardship and distress… The Central govt does not appear to have a clear idea on how the situation will be managed after 3rd May: Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi speaking at CWC meeting. pic.twitter.com/0xAIx2IfTu
— Congress (@INCIndia) April 23, 2020
Since Modi is behaving as a Hindu sect preacher instead of a wise leader, he is taking random decisions without any scientific support to deal with the disease. He had extended the lockdown until May 3. However, on April 20, Modi suddenly lifted some coronavirus lockdown restrictions arbitrarily without using any data to support his decision while the number of deaths is increasing rapidly.
Working in an autocratic manner, Modi has ignored the welfare of citizens while the coronavirus cases in the country are believed to be in hundreds of thousands, and thousands would have died in the past couple of months.
Although the Modi government claims that as of today (April 23) there are only 21,000 cases and 680 deaths, these are ridiculously wrong figures. In fact, independent research reports suggest that the actual number of coronavirus cases in India is close to 1 million and thousands have died.
[ Covid Health Bulletin Covers Global Coronavirus News and Views ]
But the Modi government is deliberately hiding the truth and releasing wrong, negligibly low figures about coronavirus cases in India. In order to falsely project Modi’s performance in combating coronavirus, the government is giving some random, off-the-cuff numbers about the disease.
Earlier – like a dictator – Modi had announced a sudden coronavirus lockdown for 21 days on March 24. While Modi’s blind followers had thought that coronavirus will disappear as Modi had asked them to burn candles and hit their kitchen utensils, Modi’s totka (superstitious mischief) did not work.
The scientists warn in their report that despite the 3-week-long lockdown and curfew, India may have up to 13 lakh (1.3 million) cases of COVID-19 by mid-May. At that stage, it will not be possible to stop the contagion and the lockdown exercise will go futile.
Instead of using the lockdown period to improve the healthcare infrastructure for conducting proper tests of suspected cases, Modi wasted the time in giving some useless lectures to gullible Indians.
Now, there is hardly any facility in India to carry out all types of tests to count the coronavirus cases and save lives. Apart from the diagnostic tests to determine whether a person is sick with coronavirus, the antibody tests and nucleic acid tests are essential to measure the impact of the disease in a particular area.
An antibody test finds if a person’s blood that the immune system makes can fight with the infection. And nucleic acid tests are used to confirm if a person is infected with virus.
Since Modi has lifted the coronavirus lockdown restrictions arbitrarily without getting any scientific inputs from all types of tests (including diagnostic tests, antibody tests, and nucleic acid tests), India will suffer more fatalities and face serious economic consequences. And for all this impending calamity, Modi alone is responsible.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications and research reports on different subjects.
