NEITHER VIRUS NOR BORDER ISSUE TACKLED PROPERLY: EX-PM

Former PM Manmohan Singh on Tuesday lashed out at the Modi government for its twin failures in tackling the corona pandemic and the border crisis and endorsed Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the pandemic continues to rage because of all authority centralised by the PM in his own hands.

He was speaking at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held in Delhi through video conference. “The pandemic is not being tackled with the courage and magnitude and effort needed to tackle the crisis,” he said and warned “another instance is the crisis on the border, which if not tackled firmly, can lead to a serious situation.”

Chairing the CWC meeting, Sonia Gandhi said: “Now, we have a full-blown crisis on the LAC with China... The future is yet to unfold but we hope mature diplomacy and decisive leadership will inform the government’s actions in protecting our territorial integrity.”

The Congress President took the government to task squarely for deliberately destroying the Indian economy. “India has been hit by a terrible economic crisis, a pandemic of huge proportions and,now, by a full-blown crisis on the borders with China. Much of each crisis is attributable to the mismanagement of the BJP-led NDA Govt and the wrong policies pursued by it,” she said.

Regretting “the people have been left to protect themselves as best as possible,” she said: “The mis-management of the pandemic will be recorded as one of the most disastrous failures of the Modi government.”

“Despite the assurances of the PM who centralised all authority in his hands, the pandemic continues to rage... and it is at this time the Centre has passed the buck to the state governments, but given them zero extra finances.”

She broached the issue of the continuous hike in fuel prices, stating, “the government has added insult to injury by mercilessly raising petrol and diesel prices for 17 consecutive days, at a time when world prices of crude have fallen.” Their prices are the highest in the past 73 years since Independence, she said. Petrol and diesel prices are very close to each other as petrol is selling at Rs79.76 a litre and diesel Rs79.40 a litre, true to the BJP slogan of “Modi hai to Mumkin hai” (it’s possible only because of Modi), Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted. “The need of hour is a massive fiscal stimulus, putting money directly in the hands of the poor, protecting and nurturing the MSMEs & stimulating demand. Instead, Govt announced a hollow financial package that had a fiscal component of less than 1% of GDP,” Sonia added.