Stepping up the attack on Modi government’s handling of COVID-19 outbreak, Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that Indian economy would be “destroyed” if strong action was not taken to contain it.

“The Indian economy will be destroyed if strong action is not taken. The government is in a stupor,” the former Congress chief said. “I will keep repeating this. The coronavirus is a huge problem. Ignoring the problem is a non-solution,” Rahul said.

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Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the steps taken by the government in dealing with coronavirus were “inadequate”.

“This government runs on knee-jerk reactions, whether it comes to taking economic steps to revive or stabilising the economy and to prevent economic corona from affecting the investors’ lifetime savings, or preventing coronavirus from spreading in this country,” Surjewala said.

“I don’t think a pandemic like coronavirus can be dealt with in this casual fashion. It is really sad the Union health minister is himself a doctor. The prime minister is also a doctor of entire political science,” he said. “At least both of them should have known that such reactions will not prevent coronavirus. Prevention is the key for stopping the spread of coronavirus,” he said. Surjewala claimed that hand sanitisers were being sold in the black market in Delhi at Rs 500. He wondered how people were allowed to enter the country only by checking their temperature.

“Does the health minister even know that if a person is infected with coronavirus then according to WHO, he/she does not show any symptoms of the virus for six days. All they were doing was to make you (people) fill a form at the airport that you don’t have coronavirus and checking your temperature. Is that the way to deal with a pandemic of this nature,” Surjewala asked.