Rahul weakening country’s resolve to fight pandemic: BJP

Even his party Chief Ministers are acting contrary to his statements on lockdowns, it says

A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the lockdown to handle the spread of COVID-19 had been a failure, the BJP accused him of “weakening the resolve of the country” in fighting the pandemic.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, addressing a video presser from a party platform, termed Mr. Gandhi’s behaviour as “most irresponsible” and said he was trying to mislead the country with “falsehoods and misrepresentation of facts”.

Mr. Prasad, citing many instances of Congress Chief Ministers acting in opposition to Mr. Gandhi’s statements with regard to announcing lockdowns and curfews, also sought to know if they were even “listening to him”. “All he has done since March is to demoralise people and seek publicity for himself.”

The BJP also released a booklet titled “Who is trying to weaken India’s fight against COVID?”, to attack Mr. Gandhi. The booklet is a compilation of his comments and also positive reports about the Modi government’s efforts to combat the novel coronavirus

Mr. Prasad pointed out that India, with a population of 137 crores, accounted for 4,345 deaths till May 26, while 15 other most virus-affected countries outside China had suffered 3,43,562 fatalities.

The Minister said he is not including China because many ‘questions’ are being raised about their numbers. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown courage in the fight against [novel] coronavirus and has done so by uniting the country,” said Mr. Prasad.