BJP natl gen secy C. T. Ravi admits India’s lack of preparedness in Covid Second wave

 

Bengaluru: Amid the rising coronavirus cases and fatalities in the country, BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi agreed that the country lacked preparedness to tackle the second wave of Covid-19.

Pointing out that India has vaccinated the highest number of people, Ravi said that the Covid-related fatalities would have been 10 times or 100 times more if the government had not made arrangements. But our preparations failed because of the unimaginable spread of coronavirus, he stated.

Earlier Karnataka High Court had rapped the Central and state government asking them to disclose to the public about the availability of vaccines. The divisional bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice A.S. Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar pulled up the state government for “defying” the Central guidelines on prioritising the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Claiming that judges are no ‘Sarvajna’ (person who is a know-all), CT Ravi alleged that the vaccination drive was affected due to the propaganda against the vaccine. “The propaganda led to wastage of nearly 45 lakh vaccine doses. “The Centre is working as per the recommendations of the expert panel. The Supreme Court also has agreed to this,” he stated in a bid to defend the government.

“Whatever is available with us, based on that the technical advisory committee will recommend how much (vaccine) has to be distributed. Based on their report, we will take a decision,” he said

On charges of alleged misgovernance by Modi-led NDA government in tackling the pandemic, Ravi said that a comparison must be made based on the number of death versus the population of overseas countries and that of India. “The virus has claimed lives and ruined our economy. We should blame the China virus and not PM Modi,” he added.

Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers D.V. Sadananda Gowda, who was present at the conference said, “If the vaccine production is inadequate can we hang ourselves?

“The court has with good intention said everyone in the country should get vaccinated. I want to ask you, if the court says tomorrow that you have to give this much (of vaccine), if it has not been produced yet, should we hang ourselves?” Gowda told reporters here.

Karnataka has been reporting 40,000 to 50,000 cases daily. According to the Karnataka government officials, the State has placed an order of three crore vaccines and the money has already been paid to the two vaccine manufacturers. However, only seven lakh doses have arrived in the State. The panicked citizens have been queuing up before the vaccination centres in the State for inoculation only to be turned down.