Interim Congress chief and Lok Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi, on Friday, said that Parliamentary Standing Committee meetings must be convened virtually to formulate an action plan against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the party’s first Parliamentary panel meeting since the 2021 Budget Session of the Parliament, Mrs. Gandhi also appealed to the Central Government to call an all-party meeting at the earliest.
The Congress Parliamentary Party meeting was conducted online and was attended by the party MPs, including the Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Mallikarjun Kharge, Punjab CM Amrinder Singh, and Rahul Gandhi, among others.
“India is in the grip of a deadly health disaster. Thousands have died and millions are scrambling to access basic healthcare, life-saving medicines, oxygen, and vaccines. It is heartbreaking to see people battling for their lives in hospitals, on roads, or waiting in vehicles,” Mrs. Gandhi said.
Throughout the meeting, the members expressed their discontent over how the central government has been dealing with the pandemic. “The Modi government has failed the people of the country,” she added.
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Referring to the November 2020 report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, which had warned the country of a possible second wave, Mrs. Gandhi alleged, “Ignoring expert advice, the government refused to strengthen supply chains for oxygen, medicine, and ventilators.”
She also attacked the Central government over the differential price of Covid-19 vaccines and said that the burden to make them free of cost was imposed on state governments, which are already in debt. “The government had originally allocated Rs 35,000 crore in the Union Budget 2021-22 for vaccines, but has placed the burden on already stretched state governments,” she added.
Mrs. Gandhi further said that the virus cannot be tackled with an “us versus them” approach, but only with an “us versus Coronavirus” approach. “This battle transcends political differences”
She also referred to the letters written by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, and herself to the central government last month, the former of which also witnessed a strong-worded response by Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
The panel also discussed Congress Party’s poor performance in the 2021 Assembly Elections conducted in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry. The chief said that the Congress Working Committee will soon analyze the election results, but the performance was “very disappointing.” She also congratulated TMC’s Mamata Banerjee and DMK’s MK Stalin for winning the state elections in WB and TN respectively.
The Congress underwent a great loss in the said elections, primarily due to it drawing blank in the state of West Bengal, where it was previously the main opposition. In Tamil Nadu, its alliance with DMK helped the party win 18 seats. The Congress also gained fewer seats in Kerala than in the 2016 elections but managed to hold its position as the main opposition.
In Assam, where BJP formed the government, the party gained 18 seats and folded at 2 in the Puducherry Assembly.
India clocked its highest Covid-19 infection numbers on Friday, with 4,14, 188 lakh cases being registered. It also recorded the maximum number of daily deaths, 3915. However, over 3.3 lakh citizens also recovered from the virus on the day. The number of active cases in the country now stands at 36,45,164.
AICC covid control room is reaching out with a detailed blueprint similar to covid control rooms set up at state levels. This battle transcends political differences. In this spirit the Modi government must urgently call an all-party meeting. Congress party also demands that standing committees of the parliament must be convened virtually to ensure collective action and accountability to combat the pandemic.