'Are you trying to weaken fight against Covid-19': JP Nadda 'with deep sense of pain' writes to Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi, May 12: Emphasizing the PM Modi-led government is putting up all efforts to mitigate the pandemic, BJP president J P Nadda asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has been criticizing the government’s handling of the situation if she and her party are trying to "weaken this fight against Covid-19".

 

This comes after the Congress Working Committee rather than helping the nation to defeat the virus blamed the Modi government. In his four-page letter to the Congress president, he mentioned the measures the centre has been taking for vaccination, augmenting medical facilities and coordinating with the states in containing the pandemic. He also listed the instances in which Congress was "misleading people, creating false panic and even contradicting their stands just based on political considerations."

 

Nadda wrote: "You must ask yourselves – in times as these, is your party’s conduct weakening the morale of these Covid warriors? Deliberately or otherwise, are your actions trying to weaken this fight against Covid-19?"

 

 

“I am writing this letter with a deep sense of pain,” Nadda said adding that leaders of the Congress party including the chief ministers had created “confusion.” He said Congress leaders tried to mislead people creating doubts about the vaccines made in India. He stated that the central government has already ensured considerable coverage for the priority groups by providing over 16 crore vaccines to the states in the first phases. Pointing out that the BJP-ruled states have announced their resolve to help the poor and the underprivileged by providing free vaccines, Nadda asked if the Congress-ruled states can come out with a similar decision.

 

"The Covid-19 vaccines made in India does not belong to any political party or leader-it belongs to the nation. Yet the Congress did not do the right thing instead did the wrong politics," he said. He stated in the fight against the pandemic, the conduct of senior leaders of the Congress including Rahul Gandhi "will be remembered for duplicity and pettiness."

 

 

Nadda pointed out that Congress had opposed lockdown, but now asking for it, held massive election rallies in Kerala causing a spike in Covid cases while grandstanding about election rallies elsewhere. According to him, the states have failed to track the rising cases. "Why are mortality rates in states such as Punjab so high?" he asked.

 

Nadda took a strong exception to the Congress party, for putting all the blame on the Central Vista Project. "I would like to remind you that the need for a new Parliament was raised as early as UPA times… People are also contrasting the Congress’ stand on Central Vista with the Chhattisgarh government going ahead to build a new assembly complex," he wrote.

 

 

Nadda said even the Supreme Court has said that the health infrastructure this government has inherited over the last 70 years is inadequate and that Congress had dominated India’s political landscape. However, Nadda maintained that India’s fight against Covid, led by Modi, is “driven by an unwavering belief in principles of science, support to innovation, trust in our Covid warriors and cooperative federalism”. He concluded saying “I assure you that the Government of India will continue being proactive so that we defeat the virus and get ahead with economic as well as social empowerment.”