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Who is the responsible for spread of Corona? Rupani says it is Tabligh jammat, while shiv Sena leader fires salvo against Namaste Trump event
By Abdul Hafiz Lakhani Ahmedabad/ Mumbai
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani recently claimed that Tablighi Jamaat was the responsible for the spread of Corona virus in Gujarat.
Now Shiv Sena leader Sanjay raut hit back and alleged that the event Namaste Trump held in Ahmedabad to welcome US president in Gujarat in Last February was the prime reason for the spread of this deadly pendemic Covid 19 in Gujarat and later Mumbai and delhi, as some delegates of America visited both place
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has sought to dismiss charges of laxity in his state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, blaming international travellers and those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi in March for an increase in the number of cases in the state in an exclusive interview with ThePrint.
Gujarat has been witnessing a spike in Covid-19 cases, and currently has the fourth-highest number of cases in the country, at over 15,000, after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
Asked about the feeling in the Muslim community that the Tablighi Jamaat issue is being used to target them, Rupani said it is only after the people who attended the Jamaat event entered Gujarat that “the Covid-19 infection spread like a forest fire.
On the other hand Shiv Sena also hit out at the Centre saying that the lockdown was implemented without any planning, but now the responsibility of lifting the curbs was left to the states.
The Sena MP said that despite the opposition BJP’s attempts to pull down the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, there was no threat to it as its survival is the ‘majboori’ (compulsion) of all the three ruling allies- Sena, NCP and Congress.
“It can’t be denied that the spread of coronavirus in Gujarat was because of the massive public gathering held to welcome US President Donald Trump. Some of the delegates, who accompanied Trump, also visited Mumbai, Delhi, which led to the spread of the virus,” Raut said in his weekly column in Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
On February 24, Trump along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken part in a road-show in Ahmedabad, which was attended by thousands of people. After the road- show, the two leaders had addressed a gathering of over one lakh people at Motera cricket stadium, run by Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA).
Gujarat had reported its first coronavirus cases on March 20, when samples of a man from Rajkot and a woman from Surat tested positive for the disease.
Raut said that any move to pull down the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government and impose President’s rule in the state citing its failure to curb the coronavirus pandemic would be suicidal.
“The state had witnessed how President’s rule was imposed and lifted as per will six months ago,” he said.
“If the handling of coronavirus cases is the basis of imposing President’s rule, then it should be done in at least 17 states, including the BJP-ruled ones. Even the central government has failed to curb the pandemic as it had no planning to fight the virus,” he said.
“The lockdown was imposed without any planning and now without any plan, the responsibility of lifting it has been left to the states. This chaos will further worsen the crisis,” he said.
The Sena MP said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has made an excellent analysis of how the lockdown has failed.
“It is shocking that people can indulge in politics by demanding President’s rule in Maharashtra for the rise in the coronavirus cases,” he said.
Meanwhile, In an open letter addressed to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) based at Ahmedabad has asked that the state not spread religious intolerance and bring out a White Paper on the Corona Pandemic in the state instead.
MCC convener Mujahid Nafees has written that, in his video communication recently the chief minister said that the state government quarantined 6,000 people in March, who had returned from abroad, to curb the spread of the pandemic. Nafees has demanded that the state declare the names of all those who took international flights to land in the state after January 30.
“CM Rupani has categorically asserted that the spread of COVID-19 in the state was caused by the Tablighis returning from Nizamuddin in Delhi in March. He has maliciously attempted to target a particular religious group in clear violation of Article 51 of the Constitution,” Nafees said, adding “I am requesting the CM to issue a white paper on the steps taken by the state government to prepare for the outbreak.”
He also said that were no facts in Rupani’s statement, and added, “The first two cases were from Surat and Rajkot reported on March 19. WHO declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency on January 30. The state lost a crucial month in not preparing for an imminent pandemic, even as it splurged all available resources in organizing the Namaste Trump event on February 24 in Ahmedabad. Did the state government tested the participants of this event?
(With media Input)
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