Thackeray and Co. should look at their performance before attacking Himanta because his performance speaks for itself

One must have heard the story of hare and tortoise as a child. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race, which happened in the case of the race between the tortoise and the hare. However, coming back to reality from the fictional world, the story fits aptly when you compare a rattled Shiv Sena which is finding it hard to control the rising cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra and the BJP ruled Assam where the cases have tremendously gone down. However, Priyanka Chaturvedi, the spokesperson of Shiv Sena and a Rajya Sabha member, recently criticised Himanta Biswa Sarma for his optimism against coronavirus. 

Tweeting out an interview of Himanta, where he wasn’t wearing a mask, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted, “This is too much of misplaced confidence. A country raging with COVID cases, for him to declare- No need to wear masks, Assam has no COVID is extremely dangerous & fuelled by politics. And that bit about parlours? So flippant.”

Make no mistake. Though it may seem only apt to point out that Himanta wasn’t wearing a mask, Priyanka’s motives seemingly were to lesson Assam when her own state was witnessing a horrific rise in the number of cases of coronavirus. However, comparing the situation of Maharashtra to Assam, Priyanka and the Uddhav Thakeray-led Shiv Sena should instead focus on controlling the rapidly spreading virus in the state rather than ranting against other leaders and states. 

On Sunday, Assam reported only 68 cases of coronavirus with a population of three crores while Maharashtra reported more than 57,000 cases with a population of 11.42 crores. The per capita caseload of Maharashtra is at least 10,000 times more than that of Assam, but the Rajya Sabha member of Shiv Sena seems busy educating other party leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma, who have successfully curbed the virus in their state. 

Himanta Biswa Sarma too gave a befitting reply to the Shiv Sena leader who criticised his statements and tweeted, “Those who are making fun on my statement on mask, must come to Assam and see how we have contained COVID-19 in compare to the states like Delhi, Kerala, and Maharashtra along with impressive recovery of our economy.We will celebrate Bihu also with the same enthusiasm this year.” 

As the second wave of the COVID-19 continues to be on an upward curve across the country, the state of Maharashtra which had suffered drastically during the first wave is now facing an even bigger ominous threat. 

The Uddhav Thackeray administration, during a meeting on Sunday, decided to implement stricter and potentially ‘business ending’ rules and restrictions against COVID-19 in the state. The MVA government decided to impose a night curfew from 8 pm to 7 am from Monday whilst simultaneously announcing that the state will also go for a complete weekend lockdown from 8 pm on Friday to 7 am, on Monday.

With the cases rising alarmingly in the past one month, the recovery rate in Maharashtra has fallen below 84 per cent. Of the 478 fatalities until April 4, when India recorded one lakh cases for the first time, 222 deaths were reported from Maharashtra alone with the total death count in the state reaching 55,878.

The unilateral and unplanned curfew imposed by the Uddhav government is surely expected to sound the death knell for many industries. When the cases had been brought to control a few months back, the Maharashtra government started demonstrating a lax attitude, which has caused the current perilous situation in the state.

Now the state is alone recording more than half of the country’s total cases of coronavirus. Thus, Uddhav and Co. should first focus on tackling the imminent threat of coronavirus in the state than criticising leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma in whose state the cases of the pandemic are far below Maharashtra. Moreover, Shiv Sena leaders like Priyanka Chaturvedi should refrain from preaching to other parties about their lax attitude towards the virus.