Stung by Sonia Gandhi accusing it of "spreading the virus of communal hatred" at a time it should be fighting coronavirus, the ruling BJP today said the Congress president should not do "cheap politics".
"We are not creating communal divisions. We are unitedly fighting COVID-19. We request them to not do cheap politics. They must not indulge in small politics," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, shortly after Sonia Gandhi took on the ruling party at a Congress leadership meet.
In her opening remarks at a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Sonia Gandhi said the BJP was doing "grave damage" to social harmony when everyone should be fighting coronavirus unitedly.
"Let me also share with you something that should worry each and every one of us as Indians. When we should be tackling the coronavirus unitedly, the BJP continues to spread the virus of communal prejudice and hatred," said the Congress chief.
"Grave damage is being done to our social harmony. Our party, we will have to work hard to repair that damage."
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and top Congress leaders attended the meeting through video conference.
Sonia Gandhi said the coronavirus pandemic had increased disturbingly in the past three weeks in both spread and speed. She also commented that she had written several times to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the lockdown was enforced and had suggested several measures and constructive cooperation.
"Unfortunately, they have been acted upon only partially and in a miserly way. The compassion, large-heartedness and alacrity that should be forthcoming from the central government is conspicuous by its absence," she said.
The CWC, in its resolution, expressed concern that the BJP was "seeking to inflame communal divides even as the country battles COVID-19".
"As a nation, we must be wary of forces that seek to polarise the country in times of a crisis such as these," said the statement adopted by the Congress's top panel.
World
Coronavirus has spread to 185 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 26,38,839 and 1,83,820 have died; 17,39,403 are active cases and 7,15,616 have recovered as on April 23, 2020 at 3:29 pm.
India
In India, there are 21,393 confirmed cases including 681 deaths. The number of active cases is 16,454 and 4,258 have recovered as on April 23, 2020 at 8:00 am.
State & District Details
State Cases Active Recovered Deaths Maharashtra5652
4594
789
269
Gujarat2407
2125
179
103
Delhi2248
1476
724
48
Rajasthan1890
1633
230
27
Tamil Nadu1629
949
662
18
Madhya Pradesh1592
1364
148
80
Uttar Pradesh1449
1255
173
21
Telangana945
728
194
23
Andhra Pradesh813
669
120
24
West Bengal456
362
79
15
Kerala438
112
323
3
Karnataka427
279
131
17
Jammu And Kashmir407
310
92
5
Haryana262
119
140
3
Punjab251
186
49
16
Bihar143
95
46
2
Odisha83
50
32
1
Jharkhand49
38
8
3
Uttarakhand46
23
23
0
Himachal Pradesh40
21
18
1
Chhattisgarh36
10
26
0
Assam35
15
19
1
Chandigarh27
13
14
0
Andaman And Nicobar Islands18
7
11
0
Ladakh18
4
14
0
Meghalaya12
11
0
1
Puducherry7
4
3
0
Goa7
0
7
0
Manipur2
0
2
0
Tripura2
1
1
0
Mizoram1
1
0
0
Arunachal Pradesh1
0
1
0
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