Impossible for PMO alone to tackle Covid-19, call all party meeting: Kharge to Modi

Kharge accused Modi of ignoring the advice and recommendations of experts and activists

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to adopt a “collective and consensual” approach in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic contending that the Prime Minister’s Office alone cannot tackle a crisis of this magnitude.

Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, shot off a letter to Modi asking him to convene an all-party meeting to “collectively forge a holistic blueprint to tackle the pandemic” and accused him of ignoring the advice and recommendations of experts and activists.

“It is impossible to tackle a crisis of this magnitude through the Prime Minister’s Office alone,” Kharge said.

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In a separate letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, Kharge asked him to allow virtual meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committees, saying Parliament cannot be a mute spectator to the sufferings of the people.

Kharge was asked to write letters to Modi and Naidu by Congress President Sonia Gandhi during a meeting of the Congress party in Parliament on Friday.

In the letter to Modi, Kharge noted that the Centre had set aside Rs 35,000 crore in the Union Budget for Covid-19 vaccines to ensure free vaccines and urged him not the “relinquish the state’s moral duty” in immunising its citizens.

Kharge also urged the Prime Minister to invoke the provisions of compulsory licensing in the Patents Act to step up production of vaccines to ensure speedy vaccination of 595 million Indians in the age group of 18-44.

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Kharge also sought a waiver of taxes on life-saving products and flagged GST on vaccines, purchase of ambulances, personal protective equipment, sanitisers, oxygen and ventilators.

“The union government must not be earning monies from the plight of the people,” he said.

Kharge also asked for speedy distribution of foreign relief material and an increase in minimum pay and workdays from 100 to 200 under MGNREGA to help unemployed migrants.

Earlier, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Lok Sabha member Rahul Gandhi had written letters to the Prime Minister on the Covid-19 crisis.