In the first substantive discussion on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Parliament on Wednesday, the Opposition questioned the government about its handling of the pandemic, the way the shutdown, the slipping of the economy, was announced and managed, the suffering. of migrant workers and the Center’s approach to the States in the battle against the disease.
Opposition parties responded to the statement by the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to Parliament on the pandemic, in which he described the government’s achievements in managing the disease, defended the blockade, spoke of the low rate. mortality in India compared to the world and highlighted the improvement of health infrastructure.
In a debate marked by nearly all leaders seeking more time to express their views, Deputy Leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, who initiated the discussion, acknowledged that the pandemic was unprecedented and that the scientific understanding of the disease was still evolving. Opposition leaders also praised the role of front-line warriors against Covid-19.
However, the differences between the government and the Opposition in almost all elements of the management of the pandemic were evident.
On the preparation of the Center in the first months of 2020 and the subsequent closure, Sharma said that the announcement was sudden, there was only a four-hour notice, leaving people stunned. He said there must be an examination of whether the government was prepared or not, and the costs and benefits of the exercise.
Responding to the Health Minister’s observation that the blockade prevented between 1.4 and 2.9 million cases and between 37,000 and 78,000 deaths, Sharma said: “This is a wide margin. What is the scientific basis for this conclusion? On the day the blockade was imposed, India had 600 cases. Today, as we speak, there are more than 5 million cases and more than 82,000 deaths. This is the true picture. “
Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress alleged that during February and March, the government did not prepare properly and erred in its guidelines on wearing masks. Other opposition leaders also accused the government of wasting precious time in February, even though the first case in India was discovered on January 30, and claimed that this was the case because the government was busy hosting the President of the States. United, Donald Trump. O’Brien called the announcement of the blockade “Demonetization 2.0”, while Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal said: “Was the blockade an individual or collective decision? If it was a collective Cabinet decision, what were the preparations?”
In his speech, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of the Bharatiya Janata Party, however, defended the confinement as well as the way to make decisions. He said that the prime minister, the interior minister, the interior secretary and the cabinet secretary held 15 talks with the states. “No prime minister said the shutdown should not have happened. During discussions on the goods and services tax (GST), many parties used to agree internally based on consensus and then go out and do politics. This is the same hypocrisy at stake. The opposition should not. Many decisions were made on the basis of contributions from the states ”.
On the subsequent impact of the closure, the Opposition focused its criticism on the suffering of migrant workers. Sharma said that if the government had consulted the states and told them to prepare down to the district and tehsil level, implement standard protocols and track migrant worker camps, the situation would have been different. He spoke of images of Indian migrant workers walking home, published internationally, and asked for a national database on migrant workers.
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Jha, who represents Bihar in the Upper House, a state that saw large numbers of migrants return home, said that while the country’s upper middle class and middle class thought they were fine, no one was thinking of the poor and the poor. migrants. workers. “Workers are not statistics. They are the father, the mother, the daughter, the son of someone. I propose that we should all apologize to the workers we did not think of, of whom we did not even speak in the first two confinements and we only woke up to their destination during the third confinement ”.
RCP Singh of Janata Dal (United) said that during the pandemic, Bihar workers, who have been working and contributing to the development of other states, were “abandoned.”
Sahasrabuddhe of the BJP strongly defended the government’s handling of the economic and humanitarian situation, saying that its “integrated approach” was based on public participation; there was a constant dialogue; there were a variety of social assistance programs, including the extension of the distribution of free rations, and examples were cited of efforts by states governed by the BJP to help migrant workers. However, a deputy from Maharashtra, Sahasrabuddhe, spoke at length about the alleged mismanagement of the pandemic in that state.
On the economic front, Tiruchi Siva of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) said: “The strictest blockade was that of India. The lowest fiscal stimulus is that of India. The biggest impact of GDP is that of India. The post-closure outcome is worse in India than anywhere else in the world. ”
On the relations between the Center and the State, O’Brien pointed out that of a public expenditure of ₹ 100 on health, the states spent ₹ 63 and the Center 37 ₹. “When things are going well, you want to take credit. When the going gets tough, talk about top ministers … what was needed was to collect best practices from all states … it takes humility to know that we don’t know everything. It takes humility to work with the states. ”O’Brien, along with other opposition leaders, also criticized the government for the“ opacity ”of the PM-Cares fine.
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As for the data, Swapan Dasgupta, a nominated member who is aligned with the BJP, said that an element of confusion had crept in, and while it was agreed that India had a large number of infected people, there was a story that came out on the hook. light. the world on how the Indian figures were underestimated.
“Now, I don’t know if this is true or false, but much of the mathematical model on which it is based would suggest that the count in India would go up from 700 million to 800 million, which seems like an absurd proposition.” He said the government’s reluctance based on the statistics had created confusion. “I urge the government to clarify the statistical soundness of the figures.”
The debate will continue on Thursday.
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