BJP slams Kamal Nath over his 'Indian corona' remarks, accuses Congress of 'insulting' India

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (May 22, 2021) slammed former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath over his 'Indian corona' remarks and accused Congress of 'insulting' India. 

Senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said that Congress was not playing the role of a responsible opposition and had instead fallen to doing negative politics.

The Union Minister also hit out at Congress' acting president Sonia Gandhi for indulging in 'politics of negativity' against the country. He questioned the silence of Gandhi over her party's senior leader Kamal Nath for calling the new COVID-19 variant 'Indian Corona' and asked why she did not condemn the remarks by the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister.

कांग्रेस नेता कमलनाथ ने “इंडियन कोरोना और हमारी पहचान, मेरा भारत कोविड” जैसी बातें कही हैं। ये भारत का अपमान है।

ये डर और भ्रम पैदा करके देश की कोरोना के खिलाफ लड़ाई को कमजोर कर रहे हैं।

सोनिया जी जबाव दें कि कांग्रेस नकारात्मक राजनीति क्यों कर रही है?

- श्री @PrakashJavdekar pic.twitter.com/v1QXSSyDsT — BJP (@BJP4India) May 22, 2021

The senior BJP leader said, "Congress leader Kamal Nath has named Corona as Indian Corona. A few people were calling a particular variant as the Indian variant. He went a step ahead and called it Indian Corona. He further said that the identity of India is - Mera Bharat COVID (My India COVID). His statement is doing the rounds and he has not disowned it till now." 

The Union Minister stated, "His statement calling India's identity as Mera Bharat COVID is an insult of the country. This is an insult of India."

"Congress is trying to weaken the battle against COVID-19. They are not performing the role of a responsible Opposition. Sonia Ji should tell why is Congress indulging in politics of negativity and why has she not condemned it till now?" asked Javadekar.

The Union Minister also clarified that there are many Congress leaders who are giving statements calling the B.1.617 variant as Indian variant despite the fact that World Health Organisation (WHO) has clarified that no variant is named after any country.

Earlier, Kamal Nath had also claimed that over one lakh people died in the state during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"It started with Chinese corona. Now it's Indian variant corona. The Prime Minister and President are afraid of the Indian variant. A country like Singapore has banned us. Somebody told me that a student who got admission to a college there, his admission was cancelled. They told him that he was coming from India and might bring the Indian variant with him," the former chief minister had said. 

The Leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly stated that the Shiv Raj Chouhan-led government's records over COVID-19 fatalities are fake.

मैं शिवराज सरकार को खुली चुनौती देता हूँ यदि उसमें साहस है तो वह मध्यप्रदेश के सभी मुक्तिधामो व कब्रस्तानो के मार्च माह से अभी तक के पूरे रिकोर्ड व रजिस्टर को सार्वजनिक करें ,मुझे गलत साबित करें। — Office Of Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) May 22, 2021

"The state government's record is fake. Lakhs of people have died due to COVID. According to my assessment, over 1 lakh people have died in Bhopal and other regions. The exact idea of the deaths can be received by assessing the number of death certificates issued during this period and how many last rites were performed," he said. 

"Around 80 per cent of the total deaths are due to COVID. But they`ll deny them of being COVID deaths saying there is no proof. Who are they fooling with this, COVID won't go by lying," the Congress leader added.

(With agency inputs)