The Congress criticism of the Covid-19 management by the Modi-Government invited a strong rejoinder from the BJP president JP Nadda who on Tuesday asked the top Congress leadership to “stop misleading people, creating false panic and even contradicting their stands just on political considerations.”
In a four-page letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Nadda accused her senior party leaders, including former President Rahul Gandhi, of creating "vaccine hesitancy", at convenience "changing stands" on the lockout issue and creating "confusion" over the Covid-19 strategy.
BJP president also went on to say thay " now there is a new trend in Congress party to put all the blame on the Central Vista project".
The letter came a day after the Congress Working Committee on Monday passed a resolution calling the second Covid-19 wave a “grave calamity and direct consequence of the Modi government’s indifference, insensitivity, and incompetence.
Nadda accused Congress of mocking at the vaccine made in India.
“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 letter said.
“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", he said.
Nadda also cited a surge in Covid-19 cases in Congress-ruled state such as Punjab.
Nadda defended the vaccination policy and said it had already ensured considerable coverage in priority groups by providing over 160 million vaccines to states in the first two phases.
"Even now it continues to give 50 percent of the total vaccines free if cost", said the letter of BJP President.
Nadda said that BJP ruled states have announced their resolve to help the poor and underprivileged by providing vaccines for free.
“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?”, he quizzed the Congress President.
Nadda accused the Congress of politicising the pandemic and the vaccination policy. He said in this fight against the pandemic, the conduct of the topmost 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 the election rallies elsewhere, supporting protest but speaking about the following Covid guidelines,” the letter said.
On the Congress’s opposition to the Central Vista, Nadda said the need for a new Parliament was raised during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance rule and the then speaker Meira Kumar had stressed the need for a new parliament building.
He drew attention of Sonia to the fact that Congress’s Chhattisgarh Government was also constructing a new Assembly complex in the State.