PM Modi 'Completely At Fault' For Covid 'Tsunami', 'Solely Devoted' To Building Own Brand: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi accused the Prime Minister of being "solely, substantially devoted to building his own brand, utterly focused on imagery rather than substance".

File Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has once again criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led union government over their handling of the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.

India is now the world's coronavirus epicentre and the entire world is shaken by what they're seeing in our country, the Wayanad MP said.

In an Interview to news agency PTI, Rahul Gandhi has said that PM Narendra Modi is "completely at fault for current Covid-19 situation". "He's running highly-centralised, personalised government machinery," he added.

He even went on to call the Modi government "arrogant". "It focuses on perception over reality. Only way to fight coronavirus is with humility," PTI quoted him as saying.

The Congress leader has accused the Prime Minister of being "solely, substantially devoted to building his own brand, utterly focused on imagery rather than substance".

He said that with Covid situation out of control, government has dropped thee ball and thrown it to states to make them and citizens truly "Aatmanirbhar".

"When coronavirus cases went down, government declared victory, PM took all credit as always. Now they're blaming states," he added.

Rahul Gandhi once again said called the Covid pandemic as "a tsunami". Covid-19 has brought absolute devastation. This is not a wave, it's a tsunami that has destroyed everything, he reiterated.

The former Congress President went on to claim that India can no longer tackle any major crisis because of what's been done to systems. "Press, judiciary, Election Commission, bureaucracy, none played role of guardian/watchdog. India is a ship in storm sailing without any information," he alleged.

Once again blaming PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, he accused them of encouraging super-spreader events and even bragging about them.

Rahul has also called the Covid Vaccine pricing as story of "discount sale"of marking up price, then reducing it. "It's complete eyewash," he added.

The Wayanad MP also responded to questions about internal election in Congress for chosing new party leadership as Sonia Gandhi took over the post of interim-president after he stepped down. 

"Organisational elections within Congress will be on time. I'll do whatever party wants, but focus right now is on pandemic," PTI quoted him as saying.

These harsh comments come in at a time when India is reporting record number of Coronavirus cases and health infrastructure is overwhelmed by second wave of infections.

India recorded 401,993 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, making it the first country in the world to register over 4 lakh infections in a single day. As many as 3523 new deaths were also reported.

Meanwhile, whether or not BJP will respond to Rahul Gandhi's remarks remains to be seen.