COVID-19 Will Be Harvard Case Studies On Failure: Rahul

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked the government over rising coronavirus cases, saying future Harvard Business School case studies on failure would include the government's handling of COVID-19.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former Congress chief also tweeted a clip which included portions from the PM's addresses to the nation on the COVID-19 crisis, including his remarks that the Mahabharat war was won in 18 days and the war against coronavirus will take 21 days.

The clip also showed a graph of rising coronavirus cases, making India the third worst-hit nation in terms of infection count.

"Future HBS case studies on failure: 1. Covid19. 2. Demonetisation.3. GST implementation," Gandhi tweeted along with the clip.

Another big single-day jump of 24,248 COVID-19 cases took India's tally close to the 7-lakh mark on Monday with 6,97,413 cases, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 19,693 with 425 new fatalities, according to the Union health ministry.

With this, the country has recorded over 20,000 cases of the infection for the fourth consecutive day. India went past Russia on Sunday to become the third worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the US and Brazil are ahead of India in terms of total coronavirus infections.

Meanwhile, The Congress on Sunday accused the government of "wasting" the lockdown by not ramping up health infrastructure and procuring "substandard" ventilators that are crucial for critical COVID-19 patients, with Rahul Gandhi charging that "opacity" in the PM Cares Fund is putting lives of Indians at risk.

Using the hashtag "BJPfailsCoronaFight", Gandhi tweeted, "PMCares opacity is: 1. Putting Indian lives at risk. 2. Ensuring public money is used to buy sub-standard products." He also tagged a news report about a private firm providing substandard ventilators, procured using the PM Cares Fund.

The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund was set up in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.