Sonia Gandhi's comments on lockdown unfortunate, false: Javadekar

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday termed Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi's comments on the nationwide lockdown as "unfortunate" and "false".

In a media briefing, Javadekar said, "Congress president Sonia Gandhi's reactions after CWC meeting blaming the government that the lockdown was not properly planned, is not only unfortunate, but false as well."

"More importantly, this is unfortunate and unnecessary politicisation of the issue of national calamity," he added.

Javadekar said that the world is fighting against coronavirus and India took precautionary steps, including the decision to enforce a lockdown.

"The whole world is praising India for timely action. People have made lockdown successful. There will always be pain and hurdles and hardships. The government with the cooperation of all people, state governments, district administrations, NGOs and with all the political parties, are doing a laudable job which the world is praising," he added.

"Political discussion can take place only after we defeat coronavirus. Till that time, we have to work in unison, work in one direction and we have to be united in this fight against coronavirus," the minister said.

"I hope the wisdom will prevail on the Congress leadership. Everybody needs to be on one page. I hope such comments will not happen till we defeat coronavirus," Javadekar further said.

Earlier, Gandhi had termed the 21-day national lockdown "unplanned" and said it has caused chaos and panic in the lives of migrant workers.

"The 21-day national lockdown may have been necessary but the unplanned manner in which it has been implemented has caused chaos and pain in the lives of millions of migrant workers all over India. It has been heartbreaking to see lakhs of people walking for hundreds of kilometres towards their villages without food or shelter," she had said.