Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday addressed a press conference about the coronavirus situation. Rahul had been critical about the Narendra Modi government's handling of the coronavirus situation, including its preparedness to tackle the virus and capacity to deal with economic fallout of the lockdown.
Rahul noted that “in the past couple of months, I have been speaking to experts in India and abroad.” Rahul said a “lockdown was no solution to the coronavirus”. “When we come out of lockdown, the virus will restart,” Rahul argued, emphasising the need for an exit strategy.
Rahul noted that the lockdown should be used to equip the medical system. Rahul said the “lockdown does not defeat the virus, it only slows it down,” adding India’s testing rate of 199 people out of a million or about “350 tests per district” was very low. “The central theme of fighting the virus is testing: Don’t chase or follow the virus,” Rahul said, arguing the government needed to know where COVID-19 was going in the country.. Rahul “proposed scaling up of testing and using testing strategically”.
When asked about the preparedness of the government in fighting coronavirus, Rahul stressed the success of fighting against coronavirus should be “bottom up, not top down” as the fight was at state level. Rahul called on the prime minister to empower states for the fight. Rahul downplayed criticism of the government move to stop the MPLADs scheme, calling for a united approach on the coronavirus situation.
Since February, Rahul Gandhi had warned coronavirus could prove to be a challenge to India and its economy and alleged the Modi government was not paying attention to the virus.
On Wednesday, Rahul appealed to the Modi government "to issue emergency ration cards in this crisis, for all those who are struggling with the lack of food in this lockdown". In a tweet, Rahul wrote, "Millions of Indians are not able to avail PDS without ration cards. Grain is rotting in the warehouse while hundreds of hungry stomachs are waiting..."
Rahul had also raised the issue of Indians stuck in the Middle East being unable to return to their country.