Senior Congressman Ashok Chavan on Saturday said BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis’ letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on the COVID-19 situation in the state proved the saffron party was “anti-Maharashtra”.
Fadnavis, in his letter, asked Gandhi to advise Congress-ruled states on how to handle the pandemic and went on to allege that the situation in Maharashtra was bleak with the detections and deaths being very high as a percentage of national figures.
Hitting back, Chavan said, “Fadnavis’ letter tries to show Maharashtra was responsible for the COVID-19 situation in the country. I request him not to give a wrong picture of the state,” Chavan, a state minister and a former chief minister, said.
Chavan said the Centre did not take Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s warning about an impending wave of infections seriously.
In February-March last year, the BJP was busy hosting events like ‘Namaste Trump’ (in Gujarat to welcome then US President Donald Trump) and toppling the then Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh, he alleged.
Assembly polls and the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar in Uttarakhand this year once again fanned the virus nationwide, he said, adding that Fadnavis needs to introspect on who was actually responsible for the pandemic intensifying.
The Congress leader said Maharashtra had the highest number of COVID-19 cases, adding that he was satisfied his state did not hide the number of cases and deaths.
Maharashtra did not suppress numbers nor did it throw bodies in rivers due to lack of space or wood for cremation, Chavan said.
Such things happened in BJP-ruled states and it would have improved the style of governance if Fadnavis wrote letters to those in power there, he added.
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