Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi against premature declaration of victory over coronavirus, saying the protracted fight has just begun, even as he urged the government to urgently prepare economic and food safety nets for the poor and the industry. He warned of a massive financial crisis, unemployment and food shortage for poor in the coming months.

Addressing a press conference, Rahul Gandhi said the immediate attention should be on preparing the system for partial relaxing of lockdown on April 20. “A lockdown is like a pause button and is in no way a solution to the virus. When we come out of lockdown, the virus will start its work again. So, we need to have a strategy to come out of lockdown which only allows you time and space to ramp up medical resources and the architecture to fight the virus when it picks up again,” he said.

Rahul added, “The opening should be strategic. If you open and you don’t do testing, you will be forced into lockdown again.”

According to the Congress functionary, by April 20, the government should ensure that health system is “tip top”, adequate direct money reaches the 20% poorest, foodgrains are given to the poor including those without ration cards, and a plan for MSMEs is in place. Warning about what he called imminent food shortage among poor and “first wave of unemployment” which will only grow worse, he said, “Act pre-emptively.”

He also cautioned, “Don’t use all your ammunition now or, we will end up with a serious financial backlash in 2-3 months.”

Asked about PM Narendra Modi’s speech that India has managed the situation the best in the world, Rahul said India is a complicated country unlike other places.

“The fight has just started and declaring victory will be misplaced. It is a long fight and we have to fight it systematically…. We should not be in the mindset of declaring victory. It should be to fight coronavirus till the late minute. Declaring premature victory can be fatal,” he said.

Saying that testing was not enough and lacked strategy, he suggested, “You have to increase testing dramatically and move to random testing, so that you move from chasing the virus to being ahead of the virus. Push testing aggressively and use it strategically.”

About migrant labourers, he urged the government to act quickly and with compassion. “If we don't act quickly, we will see social unrest developing very fast. And you cannot blame the people in this situation. If they are coming out, there is a valid reason because they are starving. So, you have to fix that reason.”

To a question about “attacks on health workers from scared people of a community and appeals by celebrities”, Rahul said, “Testing will not hurt anyone .... India will have to be united in fighting this – forgetting caste, religion. Any fight on these issues will only weaken us.”

“I may disagree with PM Modi on many things but today is not the time to fight, its time to unite and fight the virus. If we manage it together, it will put India in a much better place,” he said.

Rahul prefaced his press meet by saying that it was to offer constructive criticism and suggestions to the government, which is the opposition’s duty. During the hour-long session, he refused to indulge questions about “lapses” that he had tweeted about earlier.

He said the main fight against coronavirus was at state and district level and the PM should empower the chief ministers and act on their demands. “My suggestion is that the fight against corona be bottom up,” Rahul remarked.

“The best line I have heard from experts is that Covid cannot be controlled, it has to be dynamically managed,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mail