New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi hit out at the Centre, on Monday, alleging the "mismanagement" over COVID-19 pandemic as "one of the most disastrous failures of Modi Government".
In her opening remarks during Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, she said, "The pandemic hit India in February. Congress offered it's total support to the government for l ockdown 1.0. But within weeks, it was apparent that the government was totally unprepared to manage the fallout of the lockdown. The result was the greatest humanitarian crisis witnessed since 1947-48."
"Millions of migrant workers, daily wagers and self-employed were devastated. 130 million jobs are estimated to have been lost. Crores of MSMEs have been shut, perhaps forever," she further added.
Gandhi lashed out at the government for "centralizing" all authority and not giving any extra finances to the states.
"Despite the assurances of the Prime Minister who centralized all authority in his hands, the pandemic continues to rage. The grave deficiencies in health infrastructure have been exposed. The promised 'peak' is nowhere in the sight. The Center has passed the buck to the state governments, but given them zero extra finances," Congress chief stated.
She slammed the centre by saying that the people have been "left" on their own to protect themselves and therefore, the "mismanagement" of the pandemic will be recorded as one of the "most disastrous failures of Modi Government."
Hitting out at center for the current economic crisis, Gandhi mentioned that the situation has now become worse as the government has "refused to listen to the good advice".
"The need of the hour is a massive fiscal stimulus, putting money directly into the hands of poor, protecting and nurturing MSMEs, and stimulating demand. Instead, the government announced the hollow financial package that had a fiscal component of less than 1% of GDP," she suggested,
Over the matter of hike in petrol and diesel prices for the 17th consecutive day, at the time, when crude oil rates have fallen, the Congress chief said that the government has "added insult to injury" by "mercilessly" raising the prices.
"The result is that a sliding economy is now hurtling toward a recession for the first time in 42 years. I am afraid there will be high unemployment, falling incomes and wages and lower investment. Recovery is likely to take a long time, and that too only if the Government corrects it's course and adopts sound economic policies," said Sonia Gandhi.
She also accused that the current economic crisis, pandemic of huge proportions and a "full-blown" crisis on the borders with China is much attributable to the "mismanagement" and "wrong policies" of the Modi Government.
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