On Tuesday, former Congress President and the Member of Parliament from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi addressed an online press conference through his twitter account and said that the lockdown imposed by the central government has failed completely.
India went into a complete lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak on the 25th of March 2020. During that time, India had around 500 cases of coronavirus. Rahul Gandhi said that the lockdown has failed in its aim and purpose as the virus has refused to slow down. He also accused the government of ending the lockdown at a time when the virus is exponentially rising.
Rahul Gandhi’s comments in the wake of more and more states asking for stable economic assistance from the central government in order to boost the economic activities in the state. Gandhi also claimed that the Congress-ruled state is fighting a ‘lonely battle’ and called for help from the Union government. He said,
“Two months ago the Prime Minister said on national television that we are going to fight COVID-19 pandemic in 21 days. Now we are 60 days past and we are the only country in the world where the virus is exponentially rising while we are ending the lockdown. I think the aim and purpose of our lockdown has failed.”
The Congress States are fighting a lone battle
Talking about the things Congress-led states have been doing to tackle the economic crisis in the states, Gandhi said,
“We are directly giving cash to people including farmers and laborers but we are not getting any support from the Union Government. It is becoming extremely difficult for our states to function without adequate support from the union government. Simply put, what we expected from the lockdown has not happened. The disease profile is shooting up in several states. What is the government planning to do about it? States have a strategy but they cannot function without a national government.”
The fourth phase of the lockdown in India is scheduled to end on 31st May. As of the morning on 26th May, India has reported a total of 1,45,380 COVID-19 out of which 80,722 are active and 60,491 have recovered. The pandemic has claimed 4,167 lives across the country with a fatality rate of 2.9 percent.
Source: Livemint
