As Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi gives unwarranted opinions about how to tackle the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic on Twitter, it appears that even his party’s Chief Ministers don’t take him seriously. After Gandhi advocated for a full lockdown, the Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has categorically refused to entertain the possibility of a lockdown despite Punjab having the highest fatality rate.
In what can be read as a dismissal of Rahul Gandhi’s suggestions, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh has ruled out a complete lockdown in Punjab.
Earlier this week, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to state, “GOI doesn’t get it. The only way to stop the spread of Corona now is a full lockdown- with the protection of NYAY for the vulnerable sections. GOI’s inaction is killing many innocent people.”
I just want to make it clear that a lockdown is now the only option because of a complete lack of strategy by GOI.
They allowed, rather, they actively helped the virus reach this stage where there’s no other way to stop it.
A crime has been committed against India.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 4, 2021
In a follow-up tweet, Gandhi added, “I just want to make it clear that a lockdown is now the only option because of a complete lack of strategy by GOI. They allowed, rather, they actively helped the virus reach this stage where there’s no other way to stop it. A crime has been committed against India.”
In a worrying development, deaths due to Covid crossed the 10,000 mark on Friday with 40 per cent of the fatalities occurring in the second wave from March 1. This has resulted in Punjab, in terms of case fatality rate, tops the chart in the country with a 2.4 per cent fatality rate as compared to the national average of 1.1 per cent.
Rahul Gandhi, who has suddenly found love for lockdowns, was steadfastly against the concept of lockdown last year. Back in April 2020, the INC Prince said, that “the lockdown is not a solution to fight the coronavirus” as it can “only pause situation” and what is needed to be done by the government is to go testing “aggressively and strategically”.
During a media briefing, Gandhi said, “In no way does a lockdown defeat the virus. It helps only to pause the virus for a short while. The only way to do this is to increase testing and chasing the virus, and going beyond, and this is my advice to the government — use testing,”.
Instead of resorting to Twitter activism, Gandhi would be well advised to instruct state governments of which Congress is a part of to become a model state about how to handle the Wuhan coronavirus by following his words of wisdom as Punjab, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh struggle to contain the virus’ spread.