COVID-19 crisis: Centre's repeated chest-thumping at receiving foreign aid 'pathetic', says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Hitting out at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the government’s “repeated chest-thumping” at receiving foreign aid to deal with the COVID-19 crisis in the country is pathetic and had it done its job, it would not have come to this.

The Congress had last week demanded transparency and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make public the details of all the relief material received by India from different countries. “GOI’s repeated chest-thumping at receiving foreign aid is pathetic. Had GOI done its job, it wouldn’t have come to this,” Rahul said in a tweet. As India reels under a calamitous second wave of the coronavirus infection, it has received large amounts of medical supplies from a significant number of countries, including the US, Russia, France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Romania, Singapore, Sweden and Kuwait. In a tweet in Hindi, Rahul said, “A message for App-dependent Modi government: Unfortunately coronavirus is also affecting those who do not have internet facility, that is more than half of the country’s population!” Apps like “Ayogya Setu and NoWin” will not be the saviours, but jabs of vaccine needs to be given, the former Congress chief said in an apparent reference to the government’s Aarogya Setu and CoWin mobile applications aimed at helping in combating COVID-19 and in the vaccination drive.