Mumbai: Maharashtra’s ruling party Shiv Sena has yet again made a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for being unable to prevent the rapid rise of coronavirus cases across the country.
In a strongly worded editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, the party took a jibe at PM Modi who had expressed confidence that the battle against COVID-19 would be won in 21 days. The party said that it has been over 100 days and the crisis still persists.
“The war of Mahabharata lasted for 18 days. Prime Minister Modi had exuded confidence (in March) that we will win this battle against COVID-19 in 21 days. But it has been over 100 days and the coronavirus still persists and those fighting it have become tired,” the Shiv Sena said in its mouthpeice.
The Sena editorial said that the fight against COVID-19 is more difficult than the mythological war of Mahabharata, adding that the battle against the pandemic will continue till 2021 as the disease vaccine won't be available before that.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party expressed serious concern over India reporting the third-highest COVID-19 cases in the world.
‘’It is unfortunate and serious for the country, which is dreaming to become a financial superpower, to report over 25,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours,’’ the Sena said.
“We left Russia behind in terms of the number of cases. We will attain the number one slot in this unfortunate area if the number of cases continue to go up," it said.
It added that patients are recovering on a big scale in Maharashtra, but the situation in some areas of the state turns one restless. The editorial citing the example of Thane district, which has been a major COVID-19 hotspot.
The Saamana editorial went on to say that several politicians, public representatives, policemen, health workers and other administrators are getting infected by the disease, and this does not suit the country and states.
Though the party didn’t name anyone, it said that questions are being raised as to how many days the lockdown will continue.
But when you open the door (ease restrictions), the "messengers (threat) of coronavirus" is right out there, the Marathi publication said. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has relaxed lockdown restrictions to some extent, but the threat is still not over, the Sena said.
India's COVID-19 tally raced past the seven-lakh mark on Tuesday after a single-day spike of 22,252 infections, five days after crossing the six-lakh post, while the death toll breached the 20,000 mark, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.
It took 110 days for coronavirus infections in the country to reach the one-lakh, while just 49 days more to go past the seven-lakh mark. This is the fifth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 20,000.
The country's coronavirus infection caseload increased to 7,19,665 on Tuesday, while the death toll climbed to 20,160 with 467 persons succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The number of recoveries stands at 4,39,947, while there are 2,59,557 active cases of coronavirus infection at present in the country.
