India Lockdown: Prashant Kishor has been criticising the government. (File)
Election strategist Prashant Kishor yet again slammed the centre this morning over the 21-day "total lockdown" in India as he said that the county's response to the pandemic "needs to get better". The nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday as he urged people across India to practice social distancing to curb spread of coronavirus or COVID-19
"For all our optimism, the bitter truth is India's #covidresponse needs to get better than just banking on - a botched-up #lockdown - less than 10 #covidtest per million, & - non-existent #COVID treatment & care facilities for people needing such services.#IndiaDeservesBetter (sic)," wrote the 43-year-old poll strategist, who has earlier the Modi government over citizenship law and a nationwide register of citizens. He was sacked by BJP ally JDU in January.
In the last few days, Mr Kishor has posted several tweets attacking the government over its handling of the outbreak. "Spare a moment for millions who are suffering due to not so well executed #lockdown before indulging in nauseating self-praise on how well we are managing the #CovidCrisis," he wrote on Friday, referring to migrant labourers forced to cover journey of hundreds of kilometres to their homes as transport services remain shut.
On the first day of the lockdown- Wednesday - he had predicted "tough days ahead" for the people of the country, calling out the centre over "shaky preparedness". "Decision to #lockdownindia maybe right but 21 days might a bit too long. But then this is the price one pays for being behind the curve. With the shaky preparedness to deal with the #CovidCrisis and very little to safeguard the poor, we could be staring at some tough days ahead," his tweet read.
He also targeted his former boss - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - for abandoning "hundreds of poor people from Bihar" trapped in Delhi and other parts of the country.
"Hundreds of poor people of Bihar in Delhi and other places are locked down, trapped because of Nitish Kumarji. When governments all over are helping their people, why is the Bihar government not (helping) these people (or) arranging some immediate relief?" Prashant Kishor asked on Wednesday. "Shame on Nitish Kumar," Mr Kishor added.
A day later, however, he praised Nitish Kumar as Bihar government declared a Rs 100-crore relief package for migrants, amending his tone overnight from "shame on you".
India has reported over 870 COVID-19 cases so far, including 19 deaths. Over the past week, more than 50 cases have been reported each day from different parts of the country. Amid a constant spike, experts have stressed on social distance to curb the spread of the illness that originated in Chinda's Wuhan city and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization earlier this month.