PM Modi behaved like a coward during Covid crisis: Priyanka Gandhi

Stepping up attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Covid-19 response, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday accused him of being a “coward” and retreating in the background till the second wave began to ebb away.

“He simply retreated and waited for the worst to pass. The Prime Minister of India has behaved like a coward. He has let our country down,” Priyanka said as part of her ‘Zimmedar Kaun’ campaign seeking accountability from the prime minister.

She said good governance in a crisis is about confronting the truth, seizing responsibility, and taking action.

“Unfortunately, the Modi government did none of these. Instead, from the beginning of the pandemic, it made every attempt to hide the truth and to shirk responsibility,” the Congress general secretary alleged.

Priyanka listed a series of measures that the prime minister should have taken in the wake of Covid spread.

“If only the Prime Minister had acted upon the countless warnings he had been given by experts from India and around the world and if only he had listened to the recommendations of his own ‘Empowered Group’, or even to the Parliamentary Committee on Health, we would not have faced the horrendous shortage of beds, oxygen and medicines that we did,” she claimed.

"Had he cared about those who looked towards him for leadership, he would not have reduced the number of dedicated Covid beds between the first and the second wave. He would have ordered the tankers required to transport oxygen and prepared for the diversion of industrial oxygen to hospitals,” Priyanka said.

She also slammed Modi for not taking opponents along in this battle for Indian lives, saying he could have engaged with experts, critics, allies and the opposition fearlessly.

“He could have used the media as a disseminator of life-saving information about Covid, rather than as a propaganda tool to promote his own image,” Priyanka said.