Days after Punjab’s green zones started turning red following utter mismanagement by Maharashtra and Punjab governments in the transportation of thousands of pilgrims from Nanded, Maharashtra to Punjab, a round of political bickering has started and strangely it is becoming a Congress versus Congress contest as the Congress-led Punjab government has hit out on the Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP coalition government in Maharashtra.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh doesn’t want to take the blame for the disaster that the Congress-led state government literally invited into the state by not testing the pilgrims that were brought back from Nanded, Maharashtra. He has pinned the blame on the Maharashtra government.
In an exclusive interview to IANS, Singh said, “Of the 4200-odd persons who had returned from Nanded, 969 had tested positive, though only 23 of them were symptomatic. Some of the test results are still awaited.”
The Punjab Chief Minister added, “Unfortunately, even though we were assured by the Maharashtra government that all the pilgrims being sent back from Nanded had been tested thrice, it turned out that they had only been screened and no testing was done. We are paying the price for their (Maharashtra government’s) negligence.”
In fact, ever since the process of evacuating pilgrims stranded at the Hazur Gurudwara Sahib in Nanded, Maharashtra backfired, the Amarinder Singh government mounted an unapologetic assault on the Uddhav Thackeray government that has led to an ugly ‘Congress versus Congress (Maha Vikas Aghadi)’ fight going public.
On Monday, Punjab Health Minister Balbir S Sidhu said, “We are facing more problems as Maharashtra govt did not conduct the test of ppl who returned from Hazur Sahib in Nanded. If they had not conducted tests, then at least they should have informed us about it. We would have acted accordingly.”
#WATCH We are facing more problems as Maharashtra govt did not conduct the test of ppl who returned from Hazur Sahib in Nanded. If they had not conducted tests, then at least they should have informed us about it. We would have acted accordingly:Punjab Health Min Balbir S Sidhu. pic.twitter.com/cMVnooKs2z
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2020
Last week, Congress leader Amarinder Singh had launched a stern attack on the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government in Maharashtra, saying, “The people who returned from Nandedwe were told by the Maharashtra government that they were tested thrice but when we tested them here, about 200 of them tested positive.”
He had accused the Maharashtra government, of which Congress is part, of lying to the Punjab government, and had added, “Maharashtra lied to us. If they would have informed us that these pilgrims have not been tested, we would have taken adequate measures.”
Amarinder Singh did not even spare ally Uddhav Thackeray, and said, “I personally spoke to Uddhav Thackeray and told him that we are ready to take them back. We were hoping that there would be 2,000-2,500 people but their number was much more.”
The Nanded crisis has thus brought the worst out of the Congress, as two states where the Congress enjoys power- one of them directly ruled by Congress and one through an unholy coalition joined hands to literally manufacture a crisis out of thin air.
And now the grand old party finds itself in a tight spot, as one of its Chief Ministers, Amarinder Singh has launched a vicious assault at the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, of which Congress is a part. The party leadership itself stands clueless- it doesn’t know which side to support, as either way the party has only its own inefficiency to blame.