“You were serving Trump dhokla,” says Derek O’Brien while hitting out at the Centre & PM Modi’s handling of COVID-19 situation

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien on Tuesday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government on its handling of the pandemic situation across the country.

He criticised Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan for only congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the lockdown but ignoring state governments and COVID workers who had lost their lives in the pandemic. The first COVID-19 case was reported in India on January 30, and thousands of COVID-19 workers — doctors, nurses, other health workers, police personnel — have died till now as they have contracted the virus while treating and helping others. Yesterday, the Union Health Minister in a statement in the Parliament had congratulated the PM for the country-wide lockdown decision, which he had said was a bold step that helped avert a major crisis.

O’Brien rued that the Health Minister Harsh Vardhan did not congratulate the “doctors, nurses, health workers, police, ward boys, sweepers. So many of them lost their lives. Couldn’t he be a little generous?” He added, “We will ask these questions tomorrow.”

He was speaking to journalists outside the Parliament on Tuesday. He said, “You made preparations when Trump came. You didn’t make any preparations… (for fighting COVID). What were you doing? You were giving Trump laddoos and dhokla”. Expressing anguish, he alleged that the Centre was not preparing for the lockdown, but making arrangements for the visit of US President Donald Trump in February.

“When the lockdown was announced, there were 600 cases per day, and now we have one lakh cases per day. What are you asking us to do? To bang plates, light diyas…” he said. The Trinamool Congress MP added that the government didn’t take the states into confidence before announcing the lockdown. Also, he said that of the Rs 100 spent on health, state governments give Rs 65 and the Centre gives Rs 35. “Yet state governments get no ‘thank you’ for their work,” he said.

Interestingly, Derek O’Brien was among the five MPs evicted from the Parliament on March 18 for wearing a mask.