New
Delhi (the states. news) Leader of Opposition in
Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi
should take responsibility for the devastating second wave of COVID-19 as he
allegedly flouted rules brought by his government by campaigning amid the
pandemic.
Speaking on the floor of the Rajya Sabha, the senior Congress leader claimed
that former Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has been made the scapegoat for
failure at the highest level.
“Former Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has been made the scapegoat but the
PM has to take responsibility for the COVID crisis,” Mr Kharge said.
“While other countries were preparing to tackle the second wave, the
ministers here were busy campaigning. You were breaking the very rules brought
by you,” he alleged.
Mr Kharge showed the House some grim photos of bodies floating in river Ganga,
migrant workers walking back to their homes and people waiting for medical
oxygen.
The Congress leader claimed that the death toll from the COVID-19 was
under-reported by the government.
“In this country, there are more than six lakh villages. Even if five
persons died in a village due to COVID, this figure will go up more than 30
lakhs,” Mr Kharge claimed.
“Also, there are more than 7,000 towns and if only ten persons died in
each of these towns, more than seven lakh people would have died. If all this
is put together, the number of deaths will far exceed the government figure of
5.5 lakh,” Mr Kharge added.
On vaccination, the Leader of Opposition claimed that the order for the
procurement of vaccine doses by the government was “too little, too
late”.
He questioned the government’s claim of vaccinating the entire adult population
by December 2021, as only 5.3 per cent of the population has been vaccinated so
far.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan
Singh agreed to the Opposition demand and allowed a short discussion on
COVID-19 situation.
Initiating the discussion, Swapan Dasgupta of the BJP said the government
thought the COVID-19 pandemic will be shortlived but that was not the case as
the third wave was also expected.
“This pandemic is a constant learning experience,” he said.
Recalling the previous session of the Rajya Sabha, Mr Dasgupta said only few
members were seen wearing the face mask despite the warning from the Chair.
Giving suggestions for tackling the pandemic better, the BJP member said a
mutual corporation and transparency between the Centre and the State is
paramount.
“We can’t have the State going left and Centre right. Health is a state
subject and the Centre can only coordinate”, he added. For Hindi News : media saheb.com