Congress leader counters Prime Minister’s claim on preventive steps

India delayed the import of COVID-19 testing kits, the key to fighting the pandemic, and is now “nowhere in the game” of mass testing, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday.

Taking to twitter, Mr. Gandhi claimed the testing levels rank among the lowest, even lower than the least developed countries like Laos, Niger and Honduras.

Though he didn’t refer to Mr. Modi’s speech, he sought to counter the Prime Minister’s claim that India took preventive steps even before a single case was reported in the country.

“India delayed the purchase of testing kits & is now critically short of them. With just 149 tests per million Indians, we are now in the company of Laos (157), Niger (182) & Honduras (162). Mass testing is the key to fighting the virus. At present we are nowhere in the game,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted hours after Mr. Modi’s address to the nation.

Addressing reporters through video conferencing, senior Congress leader Manish Tewari said Mr. Modi didn’t spell out the steps taken by his government during the three-week lockdown and only mentioned what he expected the citizens to do until May 3.

“The Prime Minister spelt out what he expects the people of India to do but he did not spell out what his government is doing for the people of India,” Mr .Tewari said, adding that though the Congress supports the extended lockdown, there are several concerns.

At the party’s official briefing, the Congress leader posed several questions like the government’s plan for migrant labourers, availability of testing kits, harvesting of the rabi crops, restoration of essential commodities supply chain and action against employers who are sacking staff during such a crisis.

“The first thing which we expected the Prime Minister to address was: what does his government intend doing with regard to these millions of migrants who are stuck on various borders or various States? Are you going to allow them to go back to their homes? Is there a calibrated plan to facilitate their travel?” asked Mr. Tewari.

In a series of tweets, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also targeted Mr. Modi’s speech.

“It is obvious that livelihood for the poor — their survival — is not among the priorities of the government….The poor have been left to fend for themselves for 21+19 days, including practically soliciting food. There is money, there is food but the government will not release either money or food,” Mr. Chidambaram said, adding the Chief Ministers’ request for additional funds had also been ignored.