Health Minister Harsh Vardhan's resignation is an admission that the Narendra Modi government has failed in managing the Covid-19 pandemic, the Congress said Wednesday and argued that the Prime Minister should take responsibility for the failure since he heads the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The opposition party, which had been demanding Vardhan's resignation, said he has been made the fall guy. “The NDMA is responsible for criminal mismanagement of COVID19. It is headed by the Prime Minister. Will PM take responsibility for his failures? Or will PM only make Dr. Harsh Vardhan the scapegoat.” Congress communications department head Randeep Surjewala said. The resignations of the Health Minister and MoS, Health, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, is a candid confession that the Modi government has utterly failed in managing the pandemic. “There is a lesson for ministers in these resignations. If things go right the credit will go to the PM, if things go wrong, the minister will be the fall guy. That is the price a minister pays for implicit obedience and unquestioning subservience,” he stated. The Congress argued that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should have been the first to go if performance and governance were the criteria, as it was “under his charge” that China “has occupied Indian territory and are refusing to vacate it”. “If performance and the governance are the criteria, then Home Minister Amit Shah should have been sacked for under his charge Naxalism and terrorism is continuing unabated...and repression of human rights has become the norm and custodial deaths of activists has become the practice,” Surjewala said. Similarly, he said, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman should have been sacked for mis-management of the economy. “.the first person to be sacked should be Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for he has brought the government and the entire country to a standstill.” he added. “If the Union Education Minister and his MoS are asked to resign, what does it say about the New Education Policy that was unveiled with great fanfare? The NEP has been criticised by States, political parties, educationists, teachers, academics and scholars. The NEP too should be shown the exit door.” he said.
