In his weekly YouTube show, Dr. Parakala Prabhakar terms the response of the Modi regime as ‘numb’, ‘insensitive’ and ‘heartless’
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — In a rather surprising development, Dr. Parakala Prabhakar, the husband of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has slammed the Modi government for allegedly failing to meet the challenge of the Covid-19 crises that wreaked havoc in the country.
He branded the government’s response towards the situation: “numb, insensitive and heartless”.
“Prime Minister’s popularity and communication skills seem to indemnify the incompetence and heartlessness of this government. They could ride out the anger of the visuals of migrant laborers because of numbing. But popularity and political capital have a habit of running out without giving notice. Numbing will not last forever. Compassion, transparency, empathy will last. PM should exercise his choice at least for now,” he said in his weekly video `Midweek matters’ on YouTube.
Explaining the gravity of the situation Dr. Prabhakar said the death toll was mounting. “By the end of Monday, the official number of infected cases was 2.59 lakh. The death toll was 1761. A cumulative number of cases stand at 1 crore 563 lakhs 14 thousand and 714. In just two weeks, India has added 15 lakh new cases.”
Modi government has come under huge criticism for effectively failing to preempt the situation and preventing the outbreak of second wave of the pandemic.
Dr. Prabhakar accused the government of underreporting the actual number of deaths and cases. “Deaths are underreported. Cases too are underreported. Doctors tell us that the situation is grave. Testing too has broken down. Hospitals and lab capacities are overwhelmed. Footage of ambulances with patients outside hospitals, dozens of bodies being burnt at crematoriums, scores of stretchers doubling up as hospital beds and relatives wailing are choking our social media timelines,” he said.
He said the government was “unmindful of this agony”, and blamed the leaders for prioritising elections and religious gathering lines and not the public health or people’s lives.
“For political leaders, elections are important. For religious leaders, the renaissance of religious identity is important. Public health or people’s lives matter little for them. Our television channels show people being mobilized for rallies. PM, union ministers, CMs, opposition leaders, and a dense gathering of people at Kumbh Mela. After the damage is done, religious leaders said Mela hereafter will be symbolic. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced the cancellation of rallies. TMC and BJP continued rallies with flagrant violation of COVID protocols,” he said.
Dr. Prabhakar aimed his babs at people justifying rallies and Kumbh Mela. “It is disgusting to hear. They often say our rate of infection is less. They resort to heartless country comparisons and selective comparisons. Even cross-country comparisons are flawed. We are much higher than Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. This is something we need to ponder about,” he said.
Talking about the vaccination programme, Dr Prabhakar siad 70 percent of the population have to be vaccinated and “that means we need to vaccinate 70 crore people. We need 140 crore doses of vaccination. It is clear that we are not prepared. Vaccination is slowing down.
He also lashed out at the union health minister for his “uncivil and ill-tempered response to former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.”
Dr. Prabhakar said the government has squandered the lockdown period. “Lockdowns are not the solution but means to pause the virus until a vaccine and medical infrastructure is available.”
