Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress Saturday hit back at BJPs Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis for his letter to interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi, advising him to show courage and write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘turning the country into a crematorium.
In sharp reactions, state Congress President Nana Patole and spokesperson Sachin Sawant labeled Fadnavis as “a liar” for giving misleading statistics on Covid-19 relief supplies, which the Supreme Court and several high courts have also taken note of, and even appointed an oxygen supply task force.
“The Modi government has failed miserably in handling the Covid crisis. Rahul Gandhi had warned way back in February last year of a Corona Tsunami, but BJP leaders like the PM and Fadnavis ignored him, saying they don’t take him seriously. The result is more than 4,000 deaths that are taking place daily now. By writing to Sonia Gandhi, Fadnavis is trying to cover up the sins of Modi who has turned the country into a crematorium,” Patole said.
He also challenged Fadnavis to display courage and write to the PM or the BJP President on how the ‘Namami Gange’ has now become a ‘Shawami Gange’ and ask what happened to the ‘hollow package’ of Rs 20 lakh crore announced last year by the Centre.
Slamming Fadnavis, Sawant said that over 2,000 bodies are seen in river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and similar scenes are seen in Madhya Pradesh, forcing the world to accuse India of suppressing the figures under the Modi government.
“More people are dying because of lack of oxygen, medicines and ventilators and the true test of a leader is how well he functions in a crisis. What Modi offered during Corona was ‘taali, thaali, ghanta, diya and politics’, instead of clear planning, strategy or leadership that India needed,” Sawant pointed out.
Reiterating that Maharashtra’s statistics are transparent, Patole asked Fadnavis to reveal how many Covid tests are being carried out in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat or Bihar, or how many patients get access to oxygen and medicines, and how many deaths are being actually reported by the BJP-ruled states.
Patole pointed out that while Gujarat has had 1,23,871 deaths in just 71 days, the government has revealed only 4,218, as he blamed the ego and greed of the BJP government at the Centre for the mess.
He said even the PM’s constituency of Varanasi has no place for cremation which is being shown by the global media, and now that the situation has gone out of hand, the BJP leaders have gone on a rampage.
Challenging Fadnavis’ figures, Patole said the Centre did not set up a single oxygen plant in Maharashtra and against the state’s daily requirement of 1,750 tonne, 1,200 tonne is produced by the state in which the “Modi government had no contribution and couldn’t even supply the extra oxyen needed”.
Patole also said that when the world was busy with vaccination, Modi was occupied with election campaigns.
The Centre has no national policy on vaccination, while inoculation centres are being closed due to shortages, he said.
Despite announcing Rs 35,000 crore for inoculation, why does the Centre buy vaccines for Rs 150 when the states have to pay Rs 400 and the individuals are charged Rs 600 per dose, Patole asked.
Sawant alleged that Fadnavis’ letter reflects “the RSS training of dichotomy, hypocrisy and double-speak and is an example of the pot calling the kettle black”.