Modi maintaining physical distance from poor: Congress

Congress on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis claiming that it had led to the government’s physical distancing from the poor.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also accused the Modi government of “brow beating” the courts for questioning its handling of the migrant crisis and taking exception to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s remarks in the Supreme Court that the “high courts were running a parallel government in the country”.

“This is certainly a very arrogant attitude that should not be articulated in this fashion,” Sibal said, addressing a press conference through video link.

The former Law Minister said that the government’s “mishandling” of the response to the pandemic had forced the people into crisis.

Sibal said that people walking on the roads to their native states was a testimony of the government’s ‘apathy’ as many people have lost their lives due to starvation.

“The government’s social distancing with people has increased so much that it does not know what is happening on the ground and how to address the problems faced by people, especially the poor,” the Congress leader said.

“The future history books will recognise this government as the harbinger of doom,” he alleged.

Sibal claimed that the rift created by the Modi government through its divisive agenda before the COVID-19 outbreak has been bridged by the people who stood by each other to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Questioning the government’s “silence” on the standoff with China and Nepal, Sibal said: “Nepal is looking in our eyes and there is the standoff with China — why is the Prime Minister not looking them in their eyes”.