COVID-19 surge: As Captain of the ship, Modi should take responsibility for this mess: Tejashwi Yadav

‘The pandemic has spiralled out of control solely because of the apathetic attitude of the Nitish government’, says the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly

Amidst the virulent second wave of pandemic, Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav speaks to The Hindu about the COVID-19 situation in Bihar, Opposition politics and the return of his father Lalu Prasad. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has notoriously under-reported the numbers, be it the number of positive cases or deaths. But even if we were to go by the official statistics, it is alarming. For instance, in April alone 2.4 lakh new cases and 984 deaths have been reported with TPR (test positivity rate) of 16.1%. These are not merely numbers. These are 984 precious lives which have been lost due to lack of proper treatment and medical infrastructure. COVID-19 has now reached rural Bihar too. There are not enough beds, people are struggling to get oxygen. Into the second year of this pandemic, Bihar is still struggling, with the first step in pandemic management — testing. It takes 7-10 days for the reports to come. We have the lowest percentage of vaccinated people in the country. And all this while, the Chief Minister is busy fudging the numbers which is very unfortunate.