“He is a Chief Minister who has no regard for the people’s lives,” Naidu said.
Strongly condemning the attitude of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has been downplaying the spread of coronavirus disease, opposition party leader N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said the CM must behave responsibly.
Chief Minister Jagan has been insisting on holding the local body elections despite the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the disease a pandemic and several countries following social distancing protocols to contain its spread. Jagan’s YSRCP party on Sunday announced that it would approach the Supreme Court on Monday against the State Election Commissioner’s decision to postpone the elections by six weeks. Alleging a political conspiracy, YSRCP has claimed that the elections were postponed with an intent to stop their victory. They allege that both the opposition party TDP and the Election Commission have colluded against them.
Addressing the media, Naidu accusing Jagan of being irresponsible, said, “He is a Chief Minister who has no regard for the people’s lives. I highly condemn this. The government should wake up from its deep slumber. If the spread intensifies, we cannot control it as we don’t have adequate infrastructure to handle such a crisis.”
“The future of the state is important. This is not my appeal but a warning,” he added.
Naidu claimed that Jagan was seeking “sadistic pleasure” by demanding elections amidst the outbreak. Slamming the Chief Minister, Naidu said, “What are these remarks of ‘Paracetamol is enough or bleaching powder is enough?’ People are ridiculing the Chief Minister for his remark that paracetamol is enough to treat coronavirus.”
Further, heavily coming down on the Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, who has backed the government’s decision to hold elections amidst the coronavirus scare, Naidu questioned if at all she has read any health guidelines and protocols issued by the Government of India. “6,772 foreign returnees have been identified. Do you have the address of these people? What protocol are you following? Did you even read the guidelines? Do you understand the gravity of the issue?” Naidu asked.
Giving the example of Italy’s recent election which saw a low turn-out due to coronavirus, Naidu hinted that even if the elections were held at this juncture, the turn-out would be very low.
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