PM Modi turns emotional recalling people's sufferings, sacrifices of healthcare, frontline workers
New Delhi: On the day of the nationwide launch of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned emotional recalling people's sufferings during the pandemic, death of healthcare workers while serving the infected and noted that many of those who died could not be given the traditional last rites.
A family often comes together to nurse its sick member. But coronavirus isolated its victims who suffered in loneliness as their kin could not tend to them due to fear of infection, the prime minister said in his address before the launch.
"Many sick small children had to live away from their mothers who were in distress and wept but could not do anything. The elderly were compelled to fight the infection at hospitals in loneliness. Their children could not go near them.
"Many people who passed away could not be given traditional last rites that they deserved," said a visibly emotional Modi.
Thinking of those times gives goosebumps and one becomes sad, he said. Hailing the healthcare and other frontline workers, the prime minister said they infused hope in that time of crisis and hopelessness.
"Giving priority to their duties they kept away from families, many for days on end and hundreds of them never came back," the prime minister said in a solemn voice, referring to the deaths of large number of people involved in fighting the disease.
"They sacrificed their lives to save lives," he said.
The decision to administer the first dose of vaccines to healthcare workers is a way for the society to pay off its debt and a grateful nation paying tributes to them, Modi said.
The prime minister on Saturday launched India's COVID-19 vaccination drive and asserted that the made-in-India vaccines being rolled out will ensure a "decisive victory" for the country over the coronavirus pandemic.
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Misa Bharti calls PM Modi 'old', gets slammed by BJP, JD(U)
Patna, May 2: RJD president Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti on Thursday drew flak from the BJP-led NDA in Bihar for an uncharitable reference to the "old" age of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bharti, who is the RJD candidate from Patliputra, made the remarks while canvassing in the constituency where she attacked the NDA government at the Centre for bringing in the Agniveer scheme of recruitment in armed services.
In a video clip, purportedly of Wednesday, now viral on social media, the Rajya Sabha MP can be heard as saying: "What did this government do in 10 years? It brought in Agniveer. Young people fighting for the country will be retired at the age of 22. On the other hand, we have an old Prime Minister who at the age of 75 wants a third consecutive term".
Predictably, the BJP flew in rage and sought to remind the RJD leader that her father, too, was at a ripe age.
"PM Modi is much younger than Lalu Prasad. Misa Bharti should keep this in mind and think before heaping insults in this manner," said BJP national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain.
JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar, whose party is headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and is an NDA partner, asked, "Does Misa Bharti speak of her father in a similar tone?".
Referring to Bharti's rival in Pataliputra, the JD(U) leader added: "She will learn her lessons. The blessings of Ram are with Ram Kripal".
Ram Kripal Yadav, a former close aide of the RJD supremo, had joined the BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls in 2014 when he defeated Bharti and was rewarded with a berth in the Union council of ministers.
Five years later, Bharti suffered defeat at the hands of her father's disgruntled close aide for a second time.
Covering areas of rural Patna, Patliputra, where voting is scheduled in the final phase, is set to witness yet another straight contest between Bharti and Yadav.
