Time to act decisively, but Modi-Shah on silent mode and hiding: Sitaram Yechury on COVID crisis

By PTI
NEW DELHI: As a devastating second wave of COVID-19 raged across the country, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of being on “silent mode” at a time when they need to “act decisively”.

In a Facebook post, the Left leader alleged that the prime minister and the home minister “are hiding in their silent mode”. It is time to act decisively and not take refuge under silent mode, he said.

“You wasted public money on superstition and dhongis, rejecting scientific advice. You prioritise building a palace for yourself over public hospitals. You ignored all warnings about the pandemic. You invited people to super-spreader events and organised mega election rallies in this second wave. You failed to manage flow of oxygen properly. You let foreign aid lie in godowns for weeks. You did not buy enough vaccines,” Yechury alleged.

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After recording over four lakh fresh cases for four consecutive days, India witnessed a single-day rise of 3,66,161 COVID-19 cases on Monday, which pushed its infection tally to 2,26,62,575, according to the health ministry.

The death toll due to the viral disease climbed to 2,46,116 with 3,754 more people succumbing to it, the ministry’s data updated at 8 am showed.

Yechury also accused Modi and Shah of only doing “PR, propaganda and advertising” instead of policy making and planning.

“You have landed all of us in a situation where we are struggling to live. The buck stops with you and no one else. You can’t hide behind your silence. As you have assumed office under oath of our Constitution, you cannot abdicate your responsibility until you resign,” he said.

He also listed a slew of measures that he said should be initiated immediately.

These include procurement of vaccines from all available global sources, invoking compulsory licensing and expanding domestic vaccine production, spending budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for vaccination, stopping work on the Central Vista redevelopment project and diverting the fund for providing oxygen and vaccines, and releasing money from the PM-CARES Fund.