A few weeks before the advent of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Modi government had alerted states about the imminence of a second wave in the country and had also issued advisories urging states to take immediate measures, reports Times of India.
Amidst the opposition parties’ allegations of laxity against the centre over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hit back at the opposition parties asserting that the state governments, especially the states ruled by the opposition parties, ignored the risk of a second surge of infections even after the centre had warned them about the second wave of the pandemic.
The BJP has now put out details about how the Modi government alerted states about the possibility of a second wave and advisories issued to states to take necessary measures to tackle the pandemic.
Rebutting the opposition’s allegation, the BJP has said that time and again, PM Narendra Modi, in his interactions with chief ministers, had raised the issue of rising infections in certain parts of the country. The Prime Minister had also asked them to take measures to handle the surge, the BJP said. The party had also circulated videos of PM Modi’s meetings with various Chief Ministers on March 17, where he had alerted them about a fresh spike in infections and had asked them to take urgent steps before it was too late.
“We are confident about our Covid management, but our confidence should not become overconfidence,” PM Modi had said in one of the meetings and had urged states to become more proactive in order to contain the spread of the virus. He had insisted on states creating a micro containment zone to limit the spread of the virus.
In fact, PM Modi held six interactions with chief ministers, starting from September 23 last year till April 23 this year, to monitor the situations in the country. During such meetings, PM Modi had constantly asked Chief Ministers to focus on 60 districts with a high burden of cases and increase testing substantially.
“Moreover, the PM’s interaction with CMs on March 17 took place when India had only 30,000 new cases per day,” BJP said.
Opposition party Chief Minister’s skipped meeting to attend election rallies
The BJP also said that opposition CMs like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel skipped these interactions as they were busy with assembly polls. In fact, Bhupesh Baghel had left his own state to stay in Assam ahead of the state assembly elections as he was leading the Congress poll campaign in the state.
Reportedly, the Modi government had also dispatched teams to various parts as soon as states like Maharashtra and Kerala after both states started showing a steady increase in people testing positive. Till March, the opposition-ruled states Maharashtra and Kerala accounted for more than 75 percent of cases in the country.
Attacking the Congress party over its criticism against the vaccination policy of the center, BJP said that the opposition party’s functionaries like Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari, spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and health ministers of Congress-ruled states, such as TS Singh Deo and Bana Gupta, promoted vaccine hesitancy by raising questions about the efficacy of Indian-made vaccines.
“India is in the midst of a pandemic. Its scientists raced against time to produce a vaccine. They were reviewed at different levels before being given emergency use approval so that lives could be saved. But the opposition, Congress, in particular, mocked it. Result: people died,” BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted, sharing videos of Congress leaders’ raising doubts against Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
