Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 23: Faced with the Corona backlash accentuated by the lethargy and also possibly fear among the rank and file, the BJP is preparing the party for a massive outreach to try recovering some of the lost grounds.
The BJP had been facing public criticism that during the second wave the party elected representatives particularly, who should had been on the forefront to assist the people searching for hospital beds, oxygen, medicines or even ambulances, were nowhere to be seen even during emergency situation. Leaving the people at the mercy of the government’s mismanagement, the people’s representatives were either busy for their personal publicity, taking photographs even with dead body carriers, or were indoors fearing of catching the infection themselves.
Even in the BJP-ruled states, neither the government nor the party rank and file bothered to come to the aid of the harassed public leaving the Covid operations entirely to the frontline workers. Some of the voluntary agencies did try to reach out to the needy but most of their efforts went unrewarded in the face of crash of the health infrastructure.
The absence of the people’s representatives to the rescue of the harassed public was equally true in the non-BJP ruled states as well but the damage had directly been impacting on the BJP because the party was ruling at the centre which was totally controlling the health infrastructure at the initial stages and agreed to share the responsibilities with the states only after the situation went out of control.
Caught on the back foot over its conspicuous absence during the second wave generating public resentment, the BJP central leadership has now asked the party leaders, particularly its MPs, MLAs and other elected representatives to come out of their shells and visibly become more “empathetic and sympathetic” to the public grievances.
As part of this outreach, sources said, party leaders have been asked to step up their “social activities” to ensure delivery of medicines, availability of hospital beds as well as actively monitor the ramping up of health infrastructure, which includes installation of oxygen plants in government hospitals, particularly to prepare the country for a possible third wave.
The party leaderships’ advisory comes when the second wave is spreading to rural areas and the party locked horns with the Congress alleging an attempt to malign the image of the Centre and the prime minister Narendra Modi but miserably failed in its mission. In this context, it has highlighted what it called a “toolkit” which the Congress called fake and Twitter flagged as “manipulated media.” On Friday, the Centre told Twitter that this tagging was “prejudiced” and should be removed but the social media so far has refused to budge.
“It’s true that a negative narrative against the party and the government has been created,” a senior BJP leader admitted. “We can work against it only after getting things back to normalcy. This is a time when many have lost their family members and near ones. It’s time we soothe their pain, ease their difficulties and stand with them. The party leaders as well as workers across the states have been asked to be empathetic and sympathetic to people.”
Party leaders said relief and rehabilitation for Covid victims will be part of the strategy in the next stage. On Saturday, BJP president J P Nadda asked party-ruled states to prepare a programme for the welfare of children orphaned by the Covid pandemic and said it should be launched on May 30 when the Modi government completes seven years in power.
In a letter to CMs of BJP-ruled states, Nadda also underlined that no event will be held to mark the anniversary of the NDA government. Instead, various welfare programmes will be launched to express the party’s “gratitude” to the people.
In parallel, BJP leaders, including MPs and MLAs, have been asked to visit hospitals and families in their constituencies who have lost any members during the Covid pandemic and ensure that they get assistance if required. “The MPs and MLAs should see that oxygen plants are installed in hospitals in their respective areas, they should get in touch with authorities of private hospitals for the availability of beds, distribute medicines and to be a moral support to the victims in their difficult times,” the BJP leader said.
This has also been the key message from Nadda to the rank and file over multiple virtual meetings held last week as part of “Seva Hi Sanghatan.” These included 34 state campaigns and 873 programs in districts until May 15. Nadda, sources said, has addressed party leaders and office bearers across states and has spoken with several hundred MPs so far.
Over 3000 helplines have been set up by the party leaders across the country and more than 1200 blood donation camps have been conducted, party sources said. “More than 6 lakh party activists are into Covid-related social work,” a party leader claimed.
Meanwhile, even as Twitter refused to oblige the union information and technology ministry to remove the “manipulated media” tag from the toolkit’ reference, an FIR has been registered against the party’s national vice-president Raman Singh and party spokesperson Sambit Patra in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh for allegedly “forging” the letterhead of AICC Research Department and printing “false and fabricated” content.
They both have been summoned for questioning, the Raipur civil lines police officer RK Mishra said on Sunday. “Today, we have asked Sambit Patra to be present here in person or via video conference. The complaint was registered by Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress NSUI president,” Mishra said.
The Congress has also filed a complaint with Delhi Police seeking registration of an FIR against BJP president J P Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, Sambit Patra, and BJP’s National General Secretary B L Santhosh.
On Tuesday, the BJP had hit out at the Congress over the alleged toolkit of the opposition party, claiming it wants to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new Covid-19 strain as the “India strain” or the “Modi strain”.
The Congress had retorted accusing the BJP of propagating a “fake toolkit” to defame it. A case for “spreading fake news” and “promoting enmity between classes” was filed at Civil Lines police station based on the complaint of Akash Sharma, state chief of the National Students Union of India.
Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India allegedly under pressure from the centre, has disowned the statement of the company’s executive director Suresh Jadhav criticizing the government’s vaccination policy.
Making it clear that the SII did not share Jadhav’s critical views about the centre’s vaccination drive, Prakash Kumar Singh, director of government and regulatory affairs at Serum in a letter to the union health ministry on Sunday said, “On behalf of our CEO Adar C Poonawalla, I want to inform you that this statement is not issued on behalf of Serum Institute of India Private Limited and the Company completely dissociates itself from this statement. It is reiterated that this is not the view of the company at all,”
He also reiterated that Poonawalla was the only official spokesperson of the company and views of no other person reflected the company’s views. “Serum is committed to maximise its Covishield production and it stands shoulder-to-shoulder to strengthen the government’s fight against Covid-19,” the letter said.
The “clarification” came after Jadhav was found to be a little critical of the government’s vaccination drive. Speaking at an online health summit earlier this week, Jadhav said the government began vaccinating people from multiple age groups without taking into account the availability of stocks. He also said that the government did not consider WHO guidelines.
Jadhav said the government started the vaccination drive knowing well that it did not have adequate stock. Initially, 300 million people were to be administered the vaccine for which 600 million doses were required, but before that target was reached, the vaccination drive was opened to non-priority groups, including people above the age of 45 years and then people above the age of 18 years, he said. “That is the greatest lesson we learnt. We must take into account the availability of the product and then use it judiciously,” he said.
The government in April approved advanced payment of ₹4,500 crore to both Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech so that they can ramp up their production.
The SII has been at the centre of several controversies in recent days. After the Centre allowed state governments and private hospitals to directly procure vaccines from the manufacturers, Serum courted controversies over selling the vaccines at different rates to the Centre and the state governments. After the rates were revised, Adar Poonawalla said in an interview he was under immense pressure and was facing unprecedented aggression over the vaccine. He had also told the interviewer in London that he “escaped” from India after receiving “threats” to his life from some aggressive vaccine-seekers.