New Delhi: The Congress Party on Saturday hit out at the ruling dispensation at the Centre over an editorial published in the medical journal, The Lancet which said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government seemed more intent on removing criticism on Twitter than trying to control the Covid pandemic.
Stating The Lancet has said that India is moving towards a self-created national disaster and not a national disaster, Congress leader Ajay Maken said it is estimated that around 10 lakh people will succumb to the virus by August.
“This means more than seven lakh people will lose their lives in the next 80 days,” he added.
Maken said the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written a letter demanding the removal of Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
“The IMA has also demanded a two-week national lockdown besides asking for everyone to be vaccinated,” he added.
Maken said the Congress has raised these issued repeatedly before the government but in vain.
“Be it The Lancet or IMA, these things are already being said by Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party again and again but it is not making any difference to the government. A malicious reply was given to (former prime minister) Manmohan Singh's letter. At least the government should accept the suggestions of the IMA and The Lancet while giving them credit,” he added.
Congress leader Karti Chidambaram wondered whether the BJP-led Central Government will learn from this editorial or will it as usual dismiss and condemn the internationally acclaimed publication.
"@TheLancet damns the @narendramodi Govt, lays bare the utter failure of the self obsessed regime. Will the @BJP4India Govt learn from this editorial or will it as usual dismiss & condemn the internationally acclaimed publication?” he tweeted.
Senior Congress leader and former union minister Jairam Ramesh on his part took a jibe at the Centre.
“The government’s drumbeaters used editorials of the most prestigious Lancet to shower themselves with praise earlier,” he tweeted.
Slamming the Centre for ignoring second wave of the coronavirus, the editorial titled ‘India’s COVID-19 emergency’ said Prime Minister Modi’s “actions in attempting to stifle criticism and open discussion during the crisis are inexcusable”.
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Quoting The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that India will see a staggering 1 million deaths from COVID-19 by August 1, the editorial said: “If that outcome were to happen, Modi's Government would be responsible for presiding over a self-inflicted national catastrophe. India squandered its early successes in controlling COVID-19. Until April, the government's COVID-19 taskforce had not met in months.”
“The consequences of that decision are clear before us, and India must now restructure its response while the crisis rages. The success of that effort will depend on the government owning up to its mistakes, providing responsible leadership and transparency, and implementing a public health response that has science at its heart,” the editorial added.
In an apparent reference to the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar and the recently-concluded assembly elections, the editorial said: “The impression from the government was that India had beaten COVID-19 after several months of low case counts, despite repeated warnings of the dangers of a second wave and the emergence of new strains. Modelling suggested falsely that India had reached herd immunity, encouraging complacency and insufficient preparation, but a serosurvey by the Indian Council of Medical Research in January suggested that only 21% of the population had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.”
“At times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Government has seemed more intent on removing criticism on Twitter than trying to control the pandemic,” the editorial added.
The editorial also pointed fingers at India’s vaccination programme.
“The message that COVID-19 was essentially over also slowed the start of India's COVID-19 vaccination campaign, which has vaccinated less than 2% of the population. At the federal level, India's vaccination plan soon fell apart. The government abruptly shifted course without discussing the change in policy with states, expanding vaccination to everyone older than 18 years, draining supplies, and creating mass confusion and a market for vaccine doses in which states and hospital systems competed,” the editorial said.
The editorial also criticized the Centre’s complacency in tackling the crisis while highlighting the health infrastructure at the moment.
“The scenes of suffering in India are hard to comprehend. As of May 4, more than 20·2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported, with a rolling average of 378 000 cases a day, together with more than 222 000 deaths, which experts believe are likely to be substantial underestimates. Hospitals are overwhelmed, and health workers are exhausted and becoming infected. Social media is full of desperate people (doctors and the public) seeking medical oxygen, hospital beds, and other necessities. Yet before the second wave of cases of COVID-19 began to mount in early March, Indian Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan declared that India was in the “endgame” of the epidemic,” the editorial said.