Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 8: JKPCC vice president and former minister Raman Bhalla said today that the resignation of Harsh Vardhan as the Health Minister during the Cabinet reshuffle is an admission that the Narendra Modi Government had “utterly failed” in managing the Corona pandemic.
“The resignations of the Union Health Minister and the MoS Health are a candid confession that the Modi Government has utterly failed in managing the pandemic. This was observed by former minister while interacting with prominent persons of Dilli area of Gandhi Nagar constituency. There is a lesson for ministers in these resignations. If things go right the credit will go to the PM, if things go wrong the minister will be the fall guy. That is the price a minister pays for implicit obedience and unquestioning subservience,” Bhalla said.
Former minister further said that Dr Harsh Vardhan, a good man has been made a scapegoat for monumental failures at the highest level, nowhere else”. He said since Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had resigned as the Education Minister, the National Education Policy (NEP) should also be scrapped.
Commenting on the exercise to rejig the Cabinet, Bhalla said it was not a cabinet expansion, but “distributing the spoils of power” and “defector adjustment programme”. He said if performance and governance were the criteria, then Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should have been sacked, as the Chinese had occupied Indian territory and refused to vacate; Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman should have gone, as the economic growth was now minus 8% and Home Minister Amit Shah should have stepped down as naxal attacks and mob lynchings continued “unabated”.
“If performance and governance was the criteria then the first person to be sacked should be the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, as he has brought the Government, the entire country to a standstill, progress, peace and harmony has been thrown in the dustbin of history and the present Prime Minister would be remembered as an autocrat”, Bhalla added.
Modi and his Government have faced increasing criticism from all quarters for their failure to prevent the surge in COVID-19 cases, high number of deaths and the shortage of healthcare equipments, especially oxygen supplies.
Bhalla observed that in yet another move to evade responsibility, the Centre is now leaving it up to the states and the private sector to procure the vaccines required to inoculate the population. The BJP sought to reduce the offences it is being blamed for and deflect attention from the party and Modi by accusing the Congress party of running a campaign to discredit ongoing COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
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