‘Credit to govt’ — Congress’ Anand Sharma lauds Modi administration for Covid management

This is the second time Anand Sharma lauded the govt. In November, he deviated from Congress’ official party line & commended Modi’s 3-city tour to review vaccine development.

File image of Congress leader Anand Sharma | PTI

New Delhi: Congress leader and former Union Minister Anand Sharma Monday lauded the Modi government’s efforts to handle the Covid-19 crisis, saying that India has ramped up its manufacturing capacity in the last few months.

“Despite the challenge, we were not overwhelmed, we responded with grit as a nation,” Sharma said while speaking at the 93rd annual meeting of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

“This is a credit to our people, to our society and to the government. We all got together as a nation to respond to a situation, which was beyond us. And equally, I would say that I am proud that this country is today in a position not only to manufacture, but also export ventilators, PPE kits, masks,” he added.

This is the second time in the last couple of weeks that Sharma has appreciated the Modi government. In November, Sharma went against the Congress’ official party line and commended PM Modi’s three-city tour to review Covid vaccine development.

Sharma was one of the 23 leaders who had in August this year, written a letter to interim party president Sonia Gandhi calling for a “full-time and effective leadership”.

Last month, he also defended the leaders, who had signed the controversial letter as well as those who have been calling for introspection by the party in the aftermath of the Congress’ poor show in the Bihar assembly election.

ThePrint reached Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala through calls for a comment, but there was no response till the time of publishing this report.

‘We have been up the learning curve very sharply’

At the FICCI event, Sharma said from where India was in March, to where it is now, the country has come a long way.

“When we look at where we were in March, when the world was still learning, including the medical fraternity, about the virus, India was not thrown off balance. We have been up the learning curve very sharply,” Sharma said.

“We ramped up our capacities and there, I would compliment Indian industry and entrepreneurs and healthcare system,” he added.

Sharma went on to mention some figures pointing to India’s increased capacity to deal with the pandemic — “from the isolation beds, which were 1,70,000 on 1st of April, today we have almost 14 lakh isolation beds, ICU beds have increased from 20,000 to 80,000 and similarly the tests from 28,000, we have gone to 1.5 million.”

However, the former Commerce and Industry minister also said that the economy took a beating due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. 

“Certain images etched in our memory of pregnant women, old men and women walking hundreds of kilometres to their village. Perhaps there are lessons learnt on how to handle a pandemic,” he said.

But Sharma added that India wasn’t the only country that suffered an economic crisis due to the pandemic.

“We have also witnessed contraction in our economy. I won’t say India is an exception, it has happened to other countries too… But luckily there has been a recovery in the second quarter,” he added.