'Bankrupt leadership' of Cong looking at COVID-19 pandemic as political opportunity: BJP

The "bankrupt leadership" of the Congress is opposing every measure of the central government in fighting the coronavirus, the BJP said on Friday, asserting that nobody except "Rahul Gandhi and his gang" is against what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing to deal with the pandemic.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the entire country is together in fighting the coronavirus but the Congress is busy "fighting" Modi and the government.

"But there is this bankrupt leadership of the Congress which opposes every move of the government every day. Let the Congress understand the pulse and mood of the nation... Nobody is opposing the government except Rahul Gandhi and his gang," he said.

 

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said it is "painful to say that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party are trying to milk the coronavirus pandemic as a political opportunity".

"While they have no solutions to offer but almost every day they try to create new hurdles and problems with their baseless allegations," Patra said.

Taking on Rahul Gandhi, the BJP spokesperson said only incremental instalment of dear allowance has been put on hold for the time.

The Congress leaders should know that almost 33 crore people of the country have received about Rs 32,000 crore in their accounts through direct benefit transfer, he said.

The former Congress president had earlier in the day hit out at the government for its decision to freeze inflation-linked dearness allowance for its employees.

Noting that it was "insensitive and inhumane" to do so, he said instead of "hurting" the middle-class employees and pensioners, the government should shelve bullet train and Central Vista redevelopment projects to save money for the coronavirus fight.

Javadekar said people fully understand what the government has been doing to combat the pandemic and back it.

"People are with the government. There is anger among them with the Congress. The opposition party will have to answer one day that when the entire country was together in fighting the virus why it stood in opposition," he said.

Similarly Patra also said personalities from across the globe such as Bill Gates hailed Prime Minister Modi for his exemplary leadership during these testing times and the government is taking every section of the society.