Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Constructive Advice’ to Centre: Empower State Govts in COVID-19 Fight

“Do not use blunt instruments. Share resources with the states,” he advised the government. 

New Delhi: While pointing out that his remarks should be taken as “constructive advice” instead of criticism, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the Union government should lead the fight against coronavirus by empowering the state and district administrations. 

In a video interaction with the press, he said that Kerala has been able to contain the virus only because district administrative machinery was empowered, and the virus can be successfully managed only when India follows a “bottom-up” rather than a top-down approach. 

He said that lockdown is a “pause button”, and that “it is not a solution to the COVID virus (sic).” 

“When we come out of the lockdown, the virus is going to start its work again,” he said. 

He added that the period should be optimally utilised to ramp up testing ability, to get ventilators, to ensure PPE kits for frontline health workers, and “to create a kind of architecture” by May 3 (the last day of lockdown) so that India can meet challenges posed by the virus in the future.  

While he said that it is not the time to point out the mistakes committed by the Union government, the Congress scion called for a multifold strategy to avoid social unrest, that he felt, could become a bane in India’s fight against the virus. 

Increased random testing, instead of only chasing patients to undergo the tests, was one of his key suggestions. 

Also read: Why COVID-19 Patients in Mumbai Are Being Forced to Wait Hours for a Hospital Bed

“The biggest weapon is testing. So when you know where the virus is moving, you can target the virus accordingly. Currently, our testing rate is only 199 per million, an average of 350 tests per district. This is in no way enough to know where the virus is moving. You have to move into random testing and preempt where the virus is moving. Only when we maximise testing and use it strategically, we will be able to contain the virus,” he said.

He said that the virus can only be “dynamically managed” through a “nuanced approach”, and not “defeated”. Rahul added that if India does not follow a nuanced plan, there are ample possibilities that the virus will target more people once the lockdown is over. 

“We are now opening up partially on the 20th (April). If you open and not go into more testing by then, you will be forced into lockdown again,” he said.  

“Once you ramp up testing, then hotspots can be identified. India can then go on to create two basic zones, hotspot and non-hotspot zones, in the post-lockdown period.”

He then went on to say that apart from ramping up the healthcare infrastructure during the lockdown, the government should have a clear economic relief plan for the poor. 

He suggested that a safety net for the poor should immediately be created by directly transferring relief money to the poor in their banks and releasing the stored food supplies in the government godowns for the needy. 

“Give out food supplies to everyone, those who do not have ration cards too,” he said. 

Also read: COVID-19 Lockdown: Over 100 Million Face Food Insecurity If PDS Is Not Universalised

He also called for a long-term strategy to handle the “massive financial backlash” that India will see in the days to come. “The small and medium enterprises which employ 40% of India’s workforce should be clearly told what the government has thought about them. The government should also tell big corporates how it has planned for them,” the Wayanad MP said.

It should take such steps preemptively, and look for solutions when problems stare at your face, he added.

He felt that the current economic package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore is too less for the complexity of problems India has to deal with because of the virus. “We shouldn’t be penny pinching. We need to significantly increase the money,” he said, adding that unlike many western countries which have been hit by the virus, India has a set of unique problems to deal with.

Hinting at the problems of stranded migrant workers and other vulnerable communities, he said the government should address these on a priority basis. Here, however, he did not elaborate on how he thought the problem can be tackled. 

Acknowledging that there were many mistakes that the government has already committed, he, however, said that it is time to look forward and rectify them. “India is the only country to have attempted a full lockdown with such a huge population of migrant workers. The Chinese system is different where migrant workers stay in proper housing (in industrial clusters). A couple of mistakes were made regarding the migrant workers’ problem. I have been consulting many experts regarding how this problem can be tackled. There are different views on it. But I just want to say that the migrant workers should be handled with extreme care and gentleness,” Rahul said.

Also read: Outsourcing Governance to the Citizen

“I disagree with the prime minister’s style. He prefers a more centralised approach while I prefer a decentralised system of governance. We can work around his style. What I am saying is that the Centre should communicate with the states more clearly, put money on the table, and ask the CMs what are their requirements,” he said.

He added that if two different states prefer a different style of lockdown, the Centre should allow them to do so as states know better how to handle the crisis in their areas. 

“Do not use blunt instruments. Share resources with the states,” he advised the government. 

At the end, he said that the fight against the virus has just begun, and “any premature declaration of victory will be fatal.” 

“We have to deal with the virus with confidence, not fear. If India has to fight the virus, it has to stand united. If you are divided on the lines of faith or caste, we will lose this battle,” Rahul added.