The Modi government’s initiatives to contain the Coronavirus pandemic got full support from the most unlikely quarters as the former home minister and Congress MP P Chidambaram urged everyone to back the Prime Minister’s “stay at home” call.
“The PM is the Commander, the people are footsoldiers in the fight against the disease” Chidambaram said.
“The PM’s announcement yesterday of a nationwide 21-day lockdown is a watershed moment in the battle against COVID 19. We should put behind us the debates that took place before March 24 and look upon the nationwide lockdown as the beginning of a new battle in which the people are the foot soldiers and the PM is the Commander. We owe a duty to extend our total support to the Prime Minister and the central and state governments,” Chidambaram said.
The former minister also laid down a 10 point plan to ease the stress of the marginalized who would be the worst hit in the lockdown period.
Chidambaram had been arrested by authorties and spent more than a 100 days in jail on myriad cases filed against him by various central agencies including the Enforcement Directorate and the IT Department. The former union minister had then alleged that the Modi government was indulging in vendetta politics.
Chidambaram’s statement calling for full support to the PM comes even as his party leaders including the three Gandhis—Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka—keep railing against the PM, accusing him on inaction or delay in the government response to the pandemic.