“Both have spread the Covid infection. If Tablighis were responsible for the first wave, Congressmen are responsible for the third wave.” This is the tweet of the BJP’s state unit in response to Congress leaders ‘Mekedaatu Padayatra’ in a bid to hold Congress leaders responsible for the increasing Coronavirus cases in the state. The Coronavirus cases have increased not only in Karnataka but the entire country. It is not wrong then to raise questions or discuss the appropriateness of taking out a padayatra in such a situation. But another equally important question that must be answered is about the government triggering panic over the spread of Coronavirus when people hit the street in support of pro-people programmes while maintaining silence during election rallies or meetings. It is therefore a matter of suspicion if the government is indeed scared of Coronavirus or the Congress’ Mekedaatu padayatra.

It is also rather ironical that the State BJP in its tweet criticizing the Congress has tried to keep alive the media’s prejudiced reports that the Tablighi convention was responsible for the first wave. The Courts issued several rulings against media reports that said the Coronavirus spread due to the Tablighi convention and even rebuked the media. Similarly, the Courts dismissed the cases filed by police against foreigners who attended the conventions and indicted the prejudiced police action. The Sangh Parivar’s attempts to hold one community responsible for spreading the Coronavirus through the Tablighis failed. By again making the same statement that Tablighis were responsible for the first wave, the state BJP has tried to fish in troubled waters.

The main reason for the spread of the Coronavirus in the country can be traced to the ‘Namaste Trump’ show organized by Prime Minister Modi at Ahmedabad. If the Centre had imposed restrictions at international airports when the Coronavirus had just started spreading, the Coronavirus would not have spread its tentacles to this extent in India. The price that India paid for glorifying a President of another country by spending crores of rupee is the Coronavirus. To make the ‘Namaste Trump’ programme successful, all airports were kept open. The government did not become alert even after the ‘Namaste Trump’ programme following which the BJP-sponsored riots took place in Delhi. More than 50 innocent people lost their lives. Similar to closing the doors of the fort after it is looted, the government became alert to the Coronavirus after it entered the country. To hide its failures, it created ‘Tablighi Coronavirus.’ The media tried hard to protect the Modi government by projecting participants of Tablighi conventions as criminals. All these attempts failed in the Courts.

Even if BJP’s argument that Tablighi gathering was responsible for the first wave and the Congress is responsible for the third wave is taken into consideration, the party is silent on who is responsible for the second wave. Only if it were to morally accept that the election rallies in West Bengal under Modi-Shah leadership were responsible for the second wave, can it take moral ground to claim that the Mekedaatu padayatra is responsible for the third wave. How far have Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah followed the pandemic rules? Prime Minister Modi gathered lakhs of people in West Bengal and then congratulated the people for responding to the party’s invitation to attend the meeting in such large numbers. It is ironical that the BJP that allowed the Kumbh mela paving the way for the second wave is blaming the Tablighis for the first wave and the Congress for the third wave. It is high time political parties and politicians stopped using Corona as a shield. The BJP’s Coronavirus politics is most vile. It reminds us of the story of a pet monkey which stealthily ate curd rice from its owner’s lunch box and then smeared its hand over the mouth of a goat nearby to mislead the owner.

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Chandigarh (PTI): The Congress on Thursday announced candidates for eight of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana, fielding former Union minister Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda and youth leader Divyanshu Budhiraja, besides two sitting MLAs.

The party has also fielded former MP Jai Prakash and leaders Satpal Brahmachari and Mahendra Pratap, according to the list released late Thursday evening.

The Congress is contesting nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. It has not yet announced its candidate for the Gurugram constituency.

The Aam Aadmi Party, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, will contest the Kurukshetra seat.

Congress general secretary and former Union minister Selja will contest from the Sirsa (reserved) seat and sitting MLAs Varun Choudhary and Rao Dan Singh from the Ambala (reserved) and the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seats, respectively.

Deepender Hooda, son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will enter the fray from Rohtak. He has represented the Rohtak parliamentary constituency three times in the past.

Jai Prakash has been fielded from Hisar, the Congress' Haryana youth wing president Divanshu Budhiraja from Karnal, Satpal Brahmachari from Sonipat and Mahendra Pratap from Faridabad.