Lockdown was delayed to pull down Congress govt in MP: Kamal Nath
NEW DELHI : Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Sunday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for pushing the state into a deep COVID-19 crisis through the toppling of his government, claiming that the power game in the state delayed the nationwide lockdown..
The “centre’s engagement in toppling the (state) government led to delay in taking steps to tackle” the crisis, he said, referring to dramatic scenes last month in which 22 former MLAs resigned to leave the ruling Congress short of numbers in the Assembly and thereby allowing the BJP to grab power.
Kamal Nath also pointed out that the BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was sworn in as Chief Minister two days after the Congress government collapsed, had still not yet appointed ministers for Home and Health ministries – key posts in the battle to contain the contagious COVID-19 virus.
Madhya Pradesh is among the states most badly hit by the COVID-19 outbreak; only Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan have reported more cases and only Maharashtra has more deaths.
Holding the BJP-led government at the centre responsible for the crisis, Kamal Nath also said the people of Madhya Pradesh had been “befooled”. “Nowhere in the world has this (failure to appoint key ministers) happened,” he claimed.
“(The) cabinet (has) yet to be formed. On March 12, I ordered the closing of malls and other places but no action has been taken after my resignation,” he added. Over half of the COVID-19 cases in the state have been reported from the city of Indore, which has also reported a shockingly high death rate – 11 per cent, or three times the national average.
MP is also the state where healthcare workers and civic officials have been attacked, on at least two separate occasions. One attack – in which two women doctors were injured – was reported from Indore earlier this month.
