Days before he is slated to interact with the floor leaders of political parties in Parliament. Prime Minister Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reached out to two of his predecessors, two former presidents as well as interim president of the Congress party to discuss the COVID-19 situation.
Details of his conversation were not made public but officially it was stated that he spoken with former Presidents Ms Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee and his predecessors Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda. He also spoke to leaders of different political parties from states in the north and south, including at least three former chief ministers — Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab) — and three chie Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) and K Chandrasekhar Rao (Telangana) — and DMK leader M K Stalin. There has been criticism that the government has not taken the Opposition into confidence on drafting the strategy to counter COVID19.
While most leaders chose to be tightlipped, former PM Deve Gowda in his tweets mentioned that PM Modi called him to discuss the situation and sought his support while praising his administrative experience. “I have assured him of my support in our nation’s fight against the pandemic. Thousands of people are dying across the world due to Covid-19. The coming weeks are crucial for India in our fight against the virus. As a former Prime Minister, I agreed to cooperate in the fight…”
The former PM also said while there is an immediate need to increase testing, during the time of crisis care must be taken to see there is no disruption in farming activities. He also asked the PM to look into the problems being faced by daily-wage earners who are not able to afford even essentials for survival.
-India Legal Bureau