Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, expressed his disappointment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video message to the nation on April 3.
The Assam leader said that while he does not believe in opposing everything that Modi does, he had high expectations from the prime minister at a time when the whole nation is at distress due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The prime minister should have dwelt on how the nation is preparing to meet the threat posed by the pandemic. For instance, Shri Modi should have talked about issues such as how many ICUs and ventilator facilities are being set up in various hospitals, whether sufficient PPEs are being procured for medical staff, whether there is any progress in efforts to develop an anti-Corona vaccine in India, what steps are being taken on the ground to assist those who earn their livelihood by doing menial labour as well as homeless people and nomads, whether there is any plan to distribute sanitizers to each home and carry out random tests, etc,” he said.
“I do not believe in opposing everything Shri Modi says just for the sake of it, but I must say that the content of today’s speech left me greatly disappointed,” Saikia added.
The Congress leader further said that in the last few days, the social media as well as a section of the press have been flooded with communally-coloured posts and news in connection with the pandemic. “Unfortunately, all these crucial issues were ignored by Shri Modi today,” he said.
