Did PM want nobody to help the poor, asks Priyanka after Modi blames Cong for Covid spread

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi asked if PM Narendra Modi wanted the poor to be left helpless after the latter blamed Congress for giving free tickets to migrant workers to return home. She also questioned the PM's assembly poll rallies during the second wave of Covid.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll rallies during the second wave of Covid. Her comments came as a reaction to the Prime Minister’s allegation that the Congress in Mumbai and the Delhi (AAP) government gave free tickets to migrant workers to leave, thereby aiding a rapid spread of Covid in Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand.

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PM Modi had said in Parliament earlier in the day: “During the first wave of Covid-19, you [Congress] gave free train tickets to migrant workers to leave Mumbai. At the same time, the Delhi government told migrant workers to leave the city and provided them with buses. As a result, Covid spread rapidly in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.”

Reacting to the allegations, Priyanka Gandhi said: “These were people whom he [Modi] had deserted. They had no way of returning home. They were returning on foot. Did he want nobody to help them? What did Modiji want? What does he want?”

“What about the big rallies he conducted,” Priyanka Gandhi asked. In April 2021, PM Modi at an assembly poll rally in West Bengal's Asansol had said: "I am elated to see a large crowd. Main jahan dekh sakta hoon, mujhe log hi log dikhte hain... (I can see people as far as my sight goes)." This was at a time when India was reporting over 2 lakh daily Covid cases.

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In a similar manner, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also refuted the PM’s allegations about his government. Sharing a clip of the PM’s speech in Parliament on Monday, Kejriwal said: "This statement of Prime Minister is completely false. The country hopes that the Prime Minister will be sensitive to those who have suffered the pain of the Corona period, those who have lost their loved ones. It does not suit the Prime Minister to do politics over the sufferings of the people," he said.