PM 'low key', cannot be seen now that lockdown has failed: Rahul Gandhi

Demands to know govt's plan after May 31; fears the pandemic will spread manifold in a "non-lockdown situation"

With Lockdown 4.0 slated to end in five days, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said over two months of the nationwide lockdown has failed to achieve its objective of containing the spread of coronavirus, and demanded to know the government’s “Plan B” for tackling the crisis.

Gandhi said the prime minister was “quick to take centre stage in the early stages” of the battle, but he has “stepped back”, become “low key”, is on the “back foot” when “his leadership is most needed”. He asked the PM to face the country.

“The PM will accept that his first plan failed. I request him to play on the front foot,” said the Congress leader during a press interaction.

The former Congress president also sparked speculation that all isn’t well among the coalition partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Gandhi said his party was not a key decision-maker in the Maharashtra government. His comments come amid reports that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar is upset with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the chief of the Shiv Sena, for not opening up economic activity in the state’s bigger urban centres.

On being asked about Maharashtra’s handling of the crisis, Gandhi said, “I would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but we are not the key decision-maker in Maharashtra. We are decision-makers in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Puducherry. There is a difference between running the government and supporting it.”

NCP leader Supriya Sule tried to downplay Gandhi’s comments, but with the caveat that the Congress was very much part of the decision-making process. “I have heard what Rahul (Gandhi) said. He is absolutely right. It is a coalition. Everyone takes a decision together. Uddhav (Thackeray) takes everyone into confidence. I’ve seen him first hand, he takes everyone along,” she said.

Her colleague Majeed Memon was more forthright. “Congress members are part of the Cabinet. They are not providing support from outside. They are in the Cabinet and sign off on decisions made by the Maharashtra government, which includes the Congress party.”

Congress sources said Gandhi’s comments were twisted and it was true the Congress was only a junior partner in the alliance. Congress leaders like Sanjay Nirupam took to social media to slam Thackeray for taking decisions unilaterally. On Monday evening, Pawar had met Thackeray. He had met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari earlier in the day. Pawar had later said there was no threat to the government.

On the issue of Covid-19, Gandhi said he feared the pandemic would spread manifold in a “non-lockdown situation”. He said thousands of small and medium businesses would go bankrupt if the government does not help with an “injection of capital”. He said the unemployment situation was already bad, and has worsened during the lockdown.

Gandhi said state governments were fighting a valiant battle against the disease, but their efforts were increasingly hamstrung with the Centre not offering any help.

He termed “absolutely absurd” Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s comment that other states will have to seek his government’s permission to engage workers from UP, saying people are not his personal property.

Gandhi said not only has the lockdown failed in achieving its objectives, a fact which even the PM would concede, but it is being lifted when the infection is spreading.

He said other countries, like France, lifted their respective lockdowns when the infection curve was flattening, but India is lifting it when the spread is peaking.

On his interaction with migrant workers, Gandhi said there is a sense of hopelessness and despair among them, that they have been left alone and there is none to support them.

“They said hamara bharosa toot gaya (our trust is broken). I don’t like even a single person saying that,” he said. Gandhi said people’s trust should not break. “There is still time for the government to offer succour to them, and the government should,” he said.