BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda on Tuesday wrote a letter to Congress counterpart Sonia Gandhi lashed out at her party and said that in the fight against the pandemic the conduct of topmost Congress leaders, including their former President Rahul Gandhi will be remembered for its "duplicity and pettiness".
He also urged the top leaders of Congress to “stop misleading people, creating false panic and even contradicting the stands on the vaccination policy.”
The letter by Nadda came a day after the CWC on Monday passed a resolution terming the second Covid wave a “grave calamity and direct consequence of the Modi government’s indifference, insensitivity, and incompetence.”
In a four-page response letter to Gandhi, Nadda accused the Congress leaders of contributing hesitancy about the vaccine. “Vaccine that is made in India should be a matter of national pride. Instead, Congress leaders tried to ridicule it and create doubts in the minds of people. Even the chief minister belonging to your party indulged in such antics. In a nation that has almost no recent history of vaccine hesitancy, your party has the dubious record of trying to actively create [it], that too, in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic. The Congress Working Committee talks about the Modi government ‘abdicating’ its responsibility on vaccination. Is there so much of a communication gap between the Congress party and the states it shares powers in? In April itself, topmost Congress leaders were calling for decentralisation of vaccination.”
Defending the vaccination policy, Nadda said that the Centre has already ensured considerable coverage in priority groups by giving more than 160 million vaccines to states in the first two phases of the drive. He added that the BJP led states have also announced free vaccines for the underprivileged and poor. “I am sure that Congress governments in various states also feel strongly for the poor, can they also come out with a similar decision to provide vaccines for free?”
Attacking Congress for politicising the pandemic and the vaccination policy, Nadda stated that in the fight against the pandemic, the conduct of the top Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi will be remembered for “duplicity and pettiness.”
"Your party, under your leadership, is doing no favours to itself by opposing lockdowns and then demanding for the same, ignoring the Centre's advisories on the second wave of Covid and then saying they did not get any information, holding massive election rallies in Kerala causing a spike in Covid cases while grandstanding about election rallies elsewhere, supporting protests but speaking about following Covid guidelines," Nadda said, pointing out that amid the rising covid cases political events were organised in Congress-ruled states as well, such as Punjab. He asked why are mortality rates so high there?
Nadda told Sonia that massive rallies are the reason behind the huge surge in Covid cases there and asked her to look at the data from February and March, which would reveal which states failed to track the rising cases.
On Congress criticism of the Central Vista Project, Nadda said that the need for a new Parliament was raised as early as the UPA times. He informed that former speaker Meira Kumar had underscored the need for a new Parliament building. Chhattisgarh Government going ahead to build a new assembly complex, he added.
He said that he could go on about such follies but would focus on the pandemic and not on politics.
He further went on to add that in these times, the Congress party conduct is weakening the morale of the Covid warriors. He wrote are your actions trying to weaken the fight against the coronavirus?
Nadda assured that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's fight against Covid is driven by an unwavering belief in principles of science, support to innovation, trust in our Covid warriors and cooperative federalism.
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He further told Gandhi that the government of India will continue being proactive so that the country could defeat the virus and get ahead with economic as well as social empowerment.