Politics over Covid-19 pandemic: Congress, BJP jab at each other

BJP took to social media to tell India's growth story under PM Modi

Politics over the Covid-19 pandemic is going on in full throttle, with both Congress and BJP trying to project their respective leaders as the efficient ones. The ruling BJP has decided to highlight the 'Brand Modi', which has come under attack after the second wave of Covid-19 ravaged the country, and poor health infrastructure is only making the situation worse.

Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday tweaked the vaccination policy and centralised it further, Congress leaders vied with one another to claim that its leaders had asked for a change in the vaccine policy long back.

Hitting back, the BJP released a letter of Rahul Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking the decentralisation of the vaccination process.

Congress said, "Rahul Gandhi demanded vociferously with the Modi Govt, Modi accepts failure & announces - ONE NATION, FREE VACCINATION."

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Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed out that it was on April 18 that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given suggestions for changing the vaccine strategy and he had made a demand for "one nation, one vaccine price", after which on May 12 leaders of various parties raised the demand for free universal vaccination.

A day after PM Modi made the free vaccine promise, the Congress party vehemently attacked the government's vaccine policy. This came soon after Rahul Gandhi asked, "One simple question - if vaccines are free for all, why should private hospitals charge for them?"

Ramesh demanded that the Centre should clarify its policy in Parliament and put forward a roadmap for providing Covid-19 vaccines to all by December, alleging that the "government is driven by headlines and not deadlines".

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Congress Twitter handle said, "The constant u-turns, the chaos, the confusion, the lack of planning & the unnecessary delays - all of it has cost precious Indian lives & all of it is PM Modi's responsibility." It also said, "The US govt invested $18 billion in its vaccine makers, the Indian govt invested nothing. That is how seriously the Modi govt took this pandemic under the hashtag #FreeVaccineForAll."

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia countered by alleging a "Fateh kit scam" in Congress-ruled Punjab. He claimed that the Punjab government first gave a tender for 'Fateh' kits to a firm for Rs 837 for a single unit and then awarded two more tenders in the next few weeks for Rs 1,226 and Rs 1,338 per unit during April.

"It is a matter of shame that the Congress is doing scam during the pandemic," he said.

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"Today, lakhs of people in the country are being provided the vaccines, medical equipment, and materials worths lakhs of crores without any discrimination because an honest Prime Minister is leading India," Bhatia said before adding, "There is corruption in Congress-ruled states. They want to eat into the nation's resources like termites."

BJP also took to social media to tell India's growth story under PM Modi, putting out tweets on how there has been "record purchase of crops of farmers" under Minimum Support Price this year--416.44 lakh metric tonne of wheat as compared to 317.33 LMT last year and that the Congress-ruled Punjab, the epicentre of farmers' agitation recorded purchase of 132.1 LMT.

Seeking to reinforce PM Modis' 'development man' image, BJP Twitter handle spoke of many developmental works done in the country in the last seven years.

"The Modi government has brought a Metro Revolution in India since 2014. The number of cities with Metro has increased from 5 to 18 in the last 7 years...National Infrastructure Pipeline was launched to provide world-class infrastructure to citizens. NIP has been expanded from 6,835 to 7,400 infrastructure projects. Road construction projects over 13,000 km worth Rs 3.3 lakh crore have been awarded under Bharatmala Pariyojana. Over 3,800 km have been completed till now," it said under the hashtag #InfraForGrowth.