Rahul Gandhi accuses PM Modi of shedding crocodile tears on Covid deaths
New Delhi, May 22: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said a crying prime minister is the government of India's response to "the highest Covid deaths" in the country, devoid of vaccines and having the lowest GDP.
Gandhi made the frontal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the grim pandemic situation in the country, leading two other senior Congress leaders, P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, too to join him in the attack.
"No Vaccines. Lowest GDP. Highest Covid deaths... GOI's response? PMCries," he said in an acerbic tweet on Friday, while also accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shedding crocodile tears while paying homage to the people who died of COVID-19.
"Crocodiles are innocent," said the Congress leader in another tweet, in a dig at Prime Minister Modi turning emotional during his digital interaction with doctors in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi on Friday.
On his Twitter handle, Gandhi also shared a chart on the global economic condition and pandemic situation, tweeted by the Union government's former Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu.
The chart showed India's GDP at minus eight against 3.8 of Bangladesh, 1.9 of China and O.4 of Pakistan.
In the same chart, India was shown suffering 212 deaths for each million of its population due to COVID-19 against 0.4 deaths in Vietnam and two in China.
"Due to the mismanagement of the Modi system, India has the black fungus epidemic along with the Covid pandemic," Gandhi said in yet another tweet, targeting the prime minister.
"Along with the shortage of medicines for Covid, India also has a huge shortage of medicines for this big disease. The prime minister will soon be making a 'taali-thaali' (clapping and beating of plates) announcement to deal with the disease," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too attacked the government over the alleged poor pace of anti-Covid vaccination, saying the country needs vaccines, not crocodile tears .
"Claim -- Jan 2021: Modi Govt will vaccinate 30 cr Indians fully by July end.
Reality -- 22nd May: 4.1 cr Indians got both doses.
Claim -- 21st May: India will fully vaccinate all adults by the end of 2021.
Reality -- 21st May: Only 14 lakh vaccinated whole day," he said on Twitter.
"We need vaccines, not crocodile tears," Ramesh added in his tweet.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram also cautioned the government saying both the IMF and WHO have cautioned India against the consequences of the slow pace of vaccination.
"The claim of the Union health minister of getting 216 crore vaccine doses by December 31 to vaccinate the entire adult population by that date must be backed by hard data. So far, it is not," he said in a series of tweets.
"We need data on the capacity of domestic producers, orders placed vaccine-wise, import contracts concluded, agreed schedule of delivery etc. Nothing has been disclosed so far, he said in a tweet.
"The final warning to the government is that if vaccination is not accelerated, it will not be possible to prevent a third wave," he said.
Chidambaram said the Modi government cannot say we did not anticipate these consequences"'.
"The government has been duly forewarned," he said.
The Congress has been critical of the government's vaccination policy and slow pace of inoculations.
Crocodiles are innocent.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 22, 2021
मगरमच्छ निर्दोष हैं।
No Vaccines
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 22, 2021
Lowest GDP
Highest Covid deaths...
GOI’s response?
PMCries. pic.twitter.com/b8TbfwnrlI
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Several organisations oppose proposal of changing Mount Abu's name
Jaipur, May 6 (PTI): Protests against a proposal to change the name of Mount Abu to 'Aburaj Teerth' and banning non-vegetarian food and alcohol in Rajasthan’s only hill station are mounting with locals saying it will severely impact the town's economy.
A letter from the department of local self government to the nagar parishad commissioner on April 25 had sought a "factual comment" of the commissioner regarding renaming Mount Abu as 'Aburaj Teerth' and prohibiting meat and liquor consumption in the open.
Looking at the religious significance of Mount Abu, a proposal to change the name to 'Aburaj Teerth' was passed in the board meeting of the Nagar Parishad in October last year. The proposal was sent to the state government, where it is pending.
After this, several MLAs of the ruling party wrote letters to Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma to change Mount Abu's name due to its religious significance and ban liquor and meat consumption in the open.
Local businessmen argue that Mount Abu is known worldwide by this name and changing the name will create confusion. Moreover, prohibiting non-veg food and liquor consumption will drastically reduce the number of tourists, they argued.
Twenty-three organisations, including Mount Abu Hotel Association, Laghu Vyapar Sangh, Sindhi Seva Samaj, Valmiki Samaj, Muslim Auquaf Committee, and Nakki Lake Vyapar Sansthan, handed over a memorandum, addressed to the chief minister to Sub Divisional Officer Dr Anshu Priya on Monday.
The SDM said that the proposal is pending at the state government level.
Saurabh Gangadia, secretary of Mount Abu Hotel Association, said that nearly five to six thousand tourists visit Mount Abu daily, and most of them come from neighbouring Gujarat, which is a dry state.
"The entire economy of Mount Abu is run on tourism activities and such a move to declare Mount Abu a 'Teerth' and prohibiting liquor and meat will destroy the economy," he said.
He claimed that nearly 15000 people were directly or indirectly associated with tourism-related activities in Mount Abu and if the number of tourists drops, it will have a negative impact on their livelihood.
"With a sharp decline in tourists, there will be an increase in unemployment and migration and business units will shut down," Dinesh Mali, secretary of Street Vendors Committee, said.
"There is absolutely no need to change the name and take such steps which have the potential of causing great harm to the economy and its people," he added.
The local business stakeholders said that the name 'Mount Abu' is internationally established and it features in global travel books, Google Maps, Wikipedia, tourism portals, travel advisories, foreign tour packages, international directories and academic texts.
According to the tourism department, the history of Mount Abu can be traced back to the Puranas. Known as "Arbudaranya" or "the forest of Arbhuda" in the Puranic Age, Mount Abu is described to have served as a retreat for sage Vashistha.
A popular mythological story associated with Mount Abu mentions a serpent named Arbhuda, who had saved the life of Nandi, Lord Shiva's mount, here.
