Under PM Modi's leadership, India is going to win both the wars, says Amit Shah.
Home Minister Amit Shah today said there is no community transmission of coronavirus in Delhi and that Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's remark that the national capital will reach 5.5 lakh COVID-19 cases by the end of July has created "fear" among the people.
In an interview with news agency ANI, the BJP leader said a series of steps had been taken to contain the virus and multi-agency meetings had been held to improve coordination at various levels.
Here are the Highlights from Amit Shah's interview:
- On Coronavirus: Under PM Modi's leadership, India is going to win both the wars. The government fought well against coronavirus. I can't advise Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, that's the job of his party leaders. Some people are "vakradrashti" (hostile view) -- they see wrong even in right things. India fought well against COVID-19 and our figures are much better compared to the world.
- On Delhi COVID-19 cases: There is no such situation (coronavirus community transmission) in Delhi today, there is no need to worry.
- There is coordination... Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is always kept in the loop. He is also involved in decision-making. Some political statements might have been made, but there has been no impact on decision-making. A coordination meeting was called and a number of decisions, including testing of all individuals in containment zones, were taken.
- On Rahul Gandhi's tweets: We are capable of handling anti-India propaganda but its painful when former president of a big party (Rahul Gandhi) does shallow politics during a crisis. It is a matter of introspection for him and his party that their hashtag is being encouraged by Pakistan and China. (On Rahul Gandhi's "Surender Modi" tweet.)
- On Emergency: After Indira Gandhi, was there any Congress president from outside the Gandhi family? What democracy do they talk of? I didn't do any politics during COVID-19. You can look at my tweets of the past 10 years, every June 25, I give a statement. Emergency should be remembered by people as it attacked the roots of our democracy. No political worker or citizen should forget. There should be awareness about it. It is not about a party but about the attack on the country's democracy.
- On Migrants: Since lockdown began, both PM Modi and I spoke to all chief ministers and told them to make shelter and food arrangements for migrants. Arrangements were made for around 2.5 crore people. About Rs 11,000 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund was transferred to the states. It was ensured that hospitals and quarantine centres were operational in the receiving states. Soon after, the PM decided to run 'Shramik Special' train services, and till now, around 63 lakh migrants have travelled by 4,594 trains.
- Some sad incidents happened... when people lost patience and started travelling on foot, we were also pained by it. The PM had told all chief ministers to run buses to ferry migrants travelling on foot to the nearest railway stations. Till now, around 1.20 crore people have been ferried to their home states.
- On Hospitals: We have improved COVID-19 survey in each ward. On June 14, there were 9,937 COVID-19 hospital beds in Delhi. About 30,000 beds will be available by June 30 and 8,000 beds are available in railway coaches, while 8,000 more are being added. The DRDO is setting up a dedicated hospital with 250 ICU beds. The ITBP will run the 10,000-bedded Radha Soami Satsang Beas COVID-19 centre.