General Vijay Kumar Singh, a decorated army officer who is the Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways in the Union government, put out a series of tweets highlighting the response of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi when cloudburst had hit Uttarakhand. The UPA was in power at the centre. Uttarakhand had a Congress government in 2013. The series of tweets in order:
Pandemic apart, we are also witnessing a wave of paid Congi trolls, who would have us believe that the government is a failure and had there been a Congi PM, things would have been much better.
It’s an unprecedented crisis. A pandemic of gigantic proportions. For the sake of argument, let’s take our memories back to 2013 when Uttarakhand faced devastation due to flash floods. 25,000 people had died. Many were stranded, waiting for rescue or imminent death.
For three days after the disaster struck, no help came from the centre. After statewide protests and international media reports, there was an announcement, with zero follow-up action. Congi leadership left for undeclared reasons to the US and Bangkok.
When the mom-son duo returned, 8 trucks with biscuits and water, and more importantly huge posters of the mom-son duo were shown the green flag. The supply never reached the people since the truck drivers were uncompensated.
Now 15 days after the flash floods and nothing from the centre, the rotting dead bodies posed a risk of an epidemic. The Uttarakhand government refused assistance from all states to hide its own inaction.
What did happen though was that a company called Blue Breeze Trading Pvt. Ltd. was awarded the contract to extract the dead bodies. The company has only the famous Vadra family on the Board of Directors. The amount paid off to the company from government coffers?
Some say, a whopping INR 7,36,00,00,000. The only relief work which happened on the ground was done by the army and paramilitary. That too without any specific directions from the central government.
After doing its work, soldiers quietly went back. Contrast that with how the airforce, DRDO, railways, foreign relations have been set in motion to bring immediate help to the people. All ministries are working in tandem. A nationwide effort is being coordinated on a war footing.
For INC, the short memory of the general public is the only saving grace. Thank God, they are not at the helm of affairs. I shudder at the devastation and the scams which would have been caused even during a pandemic. Never forget & never forgive such people.
