Congress targets PM, Shah after HC raps Gujarat govt on Covid fight

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi asked whether the Prime Minister and Home Minister are “even aware of what is happening in their own home state?”

A day after the Gujarat High Court slammed the state government for trying to “artificially control” the Covid situation in the state, the Congress on Sunday said Gujarat now has a “sick” healthcare system.

The Opposition party asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah whether they have “intervened, chastised or punished” the government of their home state.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi asked whether the Prime Minister and Home Minister are “even aware of what is happening in their own home state?”

“If so, have they ever intervened, chastised or punished the Gujarat government or does the latter have Covid immunity vaccine because they belong to the BJP?” he asked.

Singhvi asked why the Gujarat Governor did not use similar standards like those adopted by the West Bengal Governor against the state government and whether similar inspection teams were sent to Gujarat by the Centre as were done for West Bengal. “Why has the Gujarat Governor not adopted the same intrusive standards for the Gujarat government as his West Bengal counterpart did?” he asked.

Referring to the Court’s observation that the civil hospital in Ahmedabad, the main government Covid facility in the state, was “as good as a dungeon, may be even worse”, Singhvi said it is sad that the home state of the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha constituency of the Home Minister has such deplorable medical facilities. He said four assembly segments of Ahmedabad are part of Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency, represented by Shah.

“If such powerful people who control the levers of power were unable to provide justice on their home ground to the poor and needy, what could the rest of India’s teeming millions expect from them,” he asked.

“Today, we don’t have a healthcare system (in the state); we have a sick system. The inefficiency of the Gujarat government in handling the Covid crisis shows that it is undermining, under-confident, and under-achieving,” Singhvi said.

He said the High Court’s remarks are “some of the severest, most scathing and harshest strictures which High Courts have ever pronounced”.