Congress releases 'White Paper' on Modi govt's COVID mismanagement

Former Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi has urged Union Government not to discriminate against a particular state in terms of providing vaccines during a virtual press conference on Tuesday.

He also released a white paper by the Congress party on the Union government's COVID management. Gandhi said that the intention of this white paper is not to point fingers at the government but to provide a blue print to face the approaching third wave.

The white paper suggests a commission led enquiry to the shortcomings in dealing with the first and second waves of COVID 19. He insisted the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not to see the fight against COVID as a political fight,

"The PM must understand that this is not a political fight and must acknowledge the entire population's preparedness for the fight'" he said during the meet.

"Test the vaccines dynamically and If you feel a vaccine isn't effective, change it. Strategy must be responsive and dynamic and correct any mistake," he added

"We are pointing out the errors because they must be rectified in the future. Before the second wave, our scientists and doctors warned us about the second wave. During that period, what action the government had to take, it didn't take. The entire country had to suffer through second wave. Today, we are still standing there," he further added.

The Congress party also clarified that the purpose of this white paper is to help this nation to prepare for the third wave to come.

"It is pretty clear that the management of the first wave and second wave were disastrous, there was some central reasons as to why it was so. We have tried to point out those reasons in our white paper. This is a blue print on how to react to the third wave which is going to come. It is our intention to provide the government with information and insights", Gandhi said

"It is pretty clear that the third wave is coming, because this virus is continuously mutating. It is important that the government prepares itself for what is going to come. What it means to be prepared, to have the infrastructure ready, which was not ready in the first and second wave. It means have the required oxygen supply ready, it means the medicines required ready. The central pillar of fighting COVID is vaccination. We must aggressively have vaccination to get done and meet the hundred percent", he insisted.

Responding to the questions of journalists, Rahul Gandhi said that he has been voicing the suggestions and information from the doctors' community, scientists, other medical professionals and experts who are not heard by the government and is amplifying their voices.

"The social and economic impact of COVID needs to be given primary importance", he said.

Releasing the document at the virtual press conference, he said: "The white paper is a result of discussions done inside the congress structure, result of a discussion with experts. We have basically developed four pillars"

The first, Gandhi said, "is the idea of understanding exactly what went wrong, which is the foundation of the White Paper".

"The second pillar is preparation for the third wave, which includes developing the critical infrastructure, including oxygen, and other elements,"

Third pillar is the idea of an economic assistance package. COVID is not just a biological phenomena, it is also an economic and social phenomena. That is why we have to make sure that the poorer people, weaker people and small and medium businesses are provided the support that they need to get through. The fourth and final element is a COVID compensation fund. Give money to people who lost their loved ones. We commit to them support of the Indian nation," he said.

Pointing at not to make vaccination look like an event to be celebrated, Rahul Gandhi said that this must be a continuous process than an event.

"My intention here is to bring focus on COVID. My intention here is to point clearly in the direction of where we think the government should act on CoVID. We have a humongous process ahead. We have to diligently do this task and the government has to do that. The government has to make this process to go every day not just a day until we have vaccinated our entire population.

The idea of a vaccination mission is good one where we involve the country and say as a nation we need to get this done, these are the volunteers that need to be trained and we think about this as a mission. That is my advice to the government. The government must treat all states equally. This is a matter of life and death. The government must not view Indian state as BJP states versus opposition states. All states must be viewed in the same light, all states must be provided with the same assistance, and all states must be provided the same amount of vaccines required. That is very important, the bias shouldn't come in. Vaccination for 70% of the population or vaccination for the 50% of population is not going to solve our problem. Because the virus will mutate so we have to vaccinate everybody as fast as possible to reach a level where the virus can no longer mutate.

Pointing out how the Prime Minister Narendra Modi discarded strategic suggestions from the opposition, Rahul Gandhi said that the white paper is an input for the government if they read it that will be helpful.

"We already said that to fight COVID can only be done in a decentralized manner. The position of prime minister, the position of chief minister, the position of DM, the position of citizen, and all their positional responsibilities must be met while fighting the virus. The main point is that there is information, there is understanding with the Congress, other opposition leaders, with the experts, with the doctors, with the scientists. Make use of it. Listen to people.

"Manmohan Singh gave crucial information to you on vaccination, but it was mocked at. We had already told you in a centralized manner you can't do it, you mocked us but months later you had to accept it. You have to work with an open mind" he explained.

On speaking about the governments fudging up the real numbers of the CoVID deaths, Rahul Gandhi said that it is very certain that the government is hiding the truth about deaths. He thinks that the actual number of deaths would be five to six times higher than the government's statistics.

It is not productive for us to get into the discussion of how many people have died, of course the compensation is critical. There are ways in which we can figure out. If you think the second wave was bad, the third wave is going to be worse," Gandhi warned

"The virus is intelligent and transforming, our entire focus must be on vaccination. Making sure we are not allowing the virus space to regenerate,"he added

"COVID deaths are happening in two ways, 'needless' death, the death that shouldn't have happened because this person could've been easily saved. The second kind is the death of a person with severe co-morbidities, saving life isn't possible or really difficult. In the second wave 90% of the deaths were happened needlessly," Gandhi said. He pointed that doctors he met all had to say universally that the major reason for these deaths is oxygen limitation.

"We couldn't give oxygen to them at the critical moment. I know a lot of individuals whose relatives died just because they couldn't provide oxygen. There is no shortage of oxygen in the country, the nation can produce as much oxygen as it needs," Gandhi pointed out

Gandhi also criticised Modi saying that "the prime minister's tears can't communicate with the tears of these individuals. The families know that my loved one when they died, the prime minister wasn't there. His tears wouldn't help but oxygen could've helped,"

He also said that the PM didn't took things seriously and was fighting the elections in Bengal and added that his focus was on some other thing.

"India is a country where in private hospitals vaccination is happening on payment basis. The PM was more interested in marketing. Bang the plates, light the lamps, we've fought out COVID, I've sent vaccine to other countries. The nation is seeing its result," Gandhi criticised

"The declaration of victory can be done when you completely wipe out COVID from India. This is not the time for that.' Gandhi added. He also called for war footing vaccination to get it done in an effective manner.

"Vaccines are being tested scientifically. I was raising the voice of many. I was amplifying their voices of those in the scientific community, doctors' community whom the government wasn't listening. The government wasn't dealing with it scientifically. The delay in providing second dose is of political reason. But there will not be any solution if it goes on," he further added

Replying to a question regarding the Union government's response to the CoVID compensation package, Rahul Gandhi said that the government always loots its citizens but never provide them a rupee when they are in dire need.

"I think the centre is making four lakh crore from taxes on diesel and petrol. They are taking money out of the pockets of people who have lost their family members. I don't understand why the government can't put some money into their pockets. It is not a question of free gifts from the government, these families require this money. India requires these families to have money because these families need to be productive. If they lost a family member who used to be an earning member, what are they supposed to do? I think there is no shortage of money and the government is taking money from people every day from petrol and diesel."

"There will be a lot of people who don't have right information about vaccine. There will be people who have fear and discomfort to have vaccine. They can be easily rectified with right information and clarity" he responded to a journalist's question on vaccine hesitancy.