Robert Vadra now offers analysis of why COVID second wave broke out; eyes UP & Uttarakhand

Making a surprise appearance on Tuesday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra attempted to politicise the outbreak of the second wave of COVID as he pinned the blame on Kumbh Mela and the UP Panchayat elections. Robert Vadra's remarks come as India has seen a significant decline in the number of COVID cases and deaths reported on a day-to-day basis even as the battle against the second wave of COVID continues. Priyanka Gandhi's husband Robert Vadra claimed that the people in the rural areas, who were not previously infected, were allegedly affected after the Kumbh Mela and the Panchayat polls. 

Robert Vadra pins blame for COVID second wave on Kumbh Mela, Panchayat polls

Launching an attack at the Centre, Robert Vadra asked why vaccines were provided to foreign countries considering the size of India's population. The Congress General Secretary's husband claimed that his family & party had since December 2020 maintained that the political rallies had to be held only after vaccinating the citizens. Further, Robert Vadra claimed that India was currently 'just in a better position' in the battle against the second wave of COVID and that they had received no help from the Centre in the fight against the pandemic. 

Congress slams Centre's 'flawed vaccination policy'

On Monday, Congress welcomed the Centre's decision to give free COVID vaccine to all above 18, but slammed the government for sticking to a "flawed" vaccination policy for long which the party alleged led to "tens of thousands of deaths". Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said had this change in the vaccination policy been brought in January, India could have avoided these deaths. Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said the announcement of free vaccination by the Central government is victory of the Opposition and the judiciary and yet another proof of BJP Government's U-Turn policy. The claim by the Congress is stretched to say the least as the party and its leader Rahul Gandhi had first been among those who wanted vaccinations decentralised but then wanted all procurement returned back to the Centre after their efforts completely failed. As recently as Monday, Rahul Gandhi was busy demonising private players for not offering vaccines for free.

'Unfair': Kumbh Mela security in charge on super-srerader tag

Earlier in May, a top Kumbh Mela official had said that it was unfair to call it a COVID "super-spreader" as just 0.2% of the total RT-PCR tests conducted in Haridwar from January 1 till the conclusion of the event had returned a positive result, while just 0.5% police personnel on Mela duty contracted the virus. During the notified period of Kumbh from April 1-April 30, swab samples of 55,55,893 people were tested for Covid out of which 17,333 tested positive, he said. Kumbh Mela IG Sanjay Gunjyal also said the religious event formally began on April 1 by which time the second wave of COVID was already raging in states like Maharashtra and Haryana.

"If we scientifically analyse the Covid data of Haridwar district right from January 1 to the conclusion of Kumbh on April 30, attempts to create a perception that Kumbh was a super-spreader of the pandemic look unfair," Gunjyal told PTI.

He was in charge of the entire security arrangements in Haridwar and adjoining areas during the Kumbh Mela. Reeling off data to make his point, the senior official said 8.91 lakh RT-PCR tests were conducted in the district from January 1 to April 30 out of which only 1,954 (0.2 per cent) were positive. Citing another reason why the Kumbh Mela cannot be considered a super-spreader event, he said out of over 16,000 police personnel deployed in the Kumbh Mela Kshetra only 88 (or just a little above 0.5%) had tested positive for Covid by April 30.