Shun personal agenda, atone for mistakes in Covid-19 handling: Congress tells PM Modi

Congress on Monday expressed revulsion at the shocking expenditure priorities of the BJP government over continuance of the Central Vista project and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “atone for his mistakes”.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC), at a meeting chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, found fault with the vaccination strategy unveiled by the government, the “opaque” pricing policy and the shortage of medicines, oxygen, and hospital beds, at a time when Covid-19 has spread through rural parts of the country.

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The CWC said the second Covid-19 wave was nothing short of a grave calamity and a direct consequence of the Modi government's “indifference, insensitivity and incompetence”.

“At a time when the nation’s resources should be devoted to ensuring expansion of vaccination coverage and supply of essential medicines and oxygen, the Modi government is indulging in criminal waste of money by continuing with the personal vanity project of the Prime Minister in the national capital,” a resolution adopted by the CWC said.

“The public health system across the country has all but collapsed,” Gandhi said in her opening remarks at the meeting.

The CWC also questioned the Modi government on the data on Covid-19 cases and fatalities, and allegations of “massive non-reporting of deaths”.

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“The solution lies in facing the challenge and stopping the casualties from Covid-19 and not in concealing the truth by burying the data on deaths and infections,” it said.

The CWC said the desperate need for assistance was also a “sad reflection” of the governance and policy failures of the Modi government.

It underscored the need to show an unwavering sense of national unity, purpose and resolve.

“In order that it may become a reality, the Prime Minister must atone for his mistakes and commit to serving the people instead of carrying on with a personal agenda, oblivious to the suffering all around,” the CWC resolution said.